CEBU, Philippines — Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) posted a decline of 4.2 percent in August 2020 to $2.756 billion from $2.875 billion in the same period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported.
This brings the cumulative remittances for the first eight months of the year to $21.414 billion, a slight decrease of 2.6 percent from the $ 21.995 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2019.
According to the report, personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more declined to $2.118 billion in August 2020, 4.6 percent lower than $2.221 billion recorded in August 2019.
Similarly, remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year fell by 2.2 percent to $580 million in August 2020 from $593 million a year ago.
OF cash remittances that are coursed through banks declined by 4.1 percent to $2.483 billion in August 2020 from $2.589 billion in August 2019.
For the period January – August 2020, cash remittances amounted to $19.285 billion, 2.6 percent lower than the $19.808 billion registered in the comparative period last year. This was due to the decline in remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers, which fell by 1.9 percent (to $15.183 billion from $15.476 billion) and 5.3 percent (to $4.101 billion from $4.332 billion).
By country source, the decline in remittances in August 2020 compared to the level in the same month last year was noted from Saudi Arabia, Japan and UAE. These were partly offset by observed remittance growth from the United States (U.S.), Singapore, and Malaysia.
In terms of cumulative share, receipts from the U.S. registered the highest share to total OF cash remittances year-to-date at 40.2 percent followed by Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Qatar.
The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.9 percent of total cash remittances.