Remittances down to 5-month low in September

MANILA, Philippines — Cash remittances from overseas Filipino workers sank to a five-month low in September, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

Money sent home by OFWs fell by 8.3 percent year-on-year to $2.2 billion in September, the BSP reported.

“This [decline] was attributed to the 11.7 percent drop in cash remittances from land-based workers which offset the 6.0 percent increase in transfers from sea-based workers,” the central bank said.

The BSP noted that reports that a number of global correspondent banks have closed their service facilities on money service business might have “partly” affected remittances flows during the month.

“[This is] reflective of the increasing global trend to reduce correspondent banking relationships and focus more on home market,” it said.

The countries that registered the biggest declines in cash remittances in September were Saudi Arabia, followed by Kuwait, Qatar and Australia.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Saudi government had extended its amnesty program anew last September 26.

A total of 8,467 undocumented Filipinos already availed of the initial offer, the DFA said.

“For Saudi Arabia, the decline in remittances could partly be the result of the continued repatriation of OFWs under the Saudi Arabian Amnesty Program which started last March 2017,” the central bank said.

September’s total cash remittances brought the nine-month tally at $20.781 billion, 3.8 percent higher than the $20.025 B recorded at end-September 2016.

Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers grew by 3.8 percent and 3.5 percent to reach $16.4 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively.

Meanwhile, personal remittances—or the sum of net compensation and personal transfers—declined to $2.3 billion in September, 7 percent lower than the level posted in the same month last year. In the first nine months of the year, it rose 4.8 percent to $23.2 billion.