OFW remittances up 7.5% in February, says Barclays

MANILA, Philippines - Money sent home by Filipinos abroad could have grown 7.5 percent in February from year-ago levels, UK-based investment bank Barclays said.

“Growth in remittances is likely to rebound somewhat after the slowdown in January,” the bank said in a research note.

Cash remittances summed up to $1.7 billion in February last year, while personal remittances – cash and non-cash--amounted to $1.881 billion.

Official February remittances data will be released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Tuesday, April 15.

Latest data from the central bank showed personal remittances rose 6.8 percent to $2.002 billion in January due to the continuous deployment of Filipinos abroad.

Cash remittances alone climbed 5.9 percent to $1.799 billion during the first month of the year. These primarily came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan and Canada.

The BSP said there were 75,348 approved job orders in January, of which 32.1 percent or 24,187 were processed. The processed job orders were for service, production, and professional, technical, and related jobs in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait and Qatar.

At the same time, expansion of bank and non-bank remittance service providers abroad supported the growth in overseas Filipinos’ remittances.

The country’s cash remittances jumped 10 percent to $22.968 billion last year, the highest level ever recorded by the central bank. Personal remittances, meanwhile, rose 8.6 percent to $25.351 billion.

Remittances, which supports domestic consumption, made up 8.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product last year which settled at a faster-than-expected 7.2 percent. 

The BSP hopes to grow cash remittances by five percent this year from the 2013 figure.