Remittances up 6.3% at $2.6 billion in September

CEBU, Philippines —  Remittances sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to increase in September as both land-based and sea-based overseas workers transferred more cash for their families back home, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday.

The central bank said overseas remittances amounted to $2.6 billion in September 2019, which is 6.3 percent higher than the $2.5 billion reported in the same period last year. 

This brought personal remittances for the first nine months of 2019 to $24.6 billion, up by 3.9 percent from last year’s level of $23.7 billion for the January to September period.

The BSP said the steady growth in personal remittances for the nine-month period was driven by steady remittance inflows from both land-based and sea-based overseas Filipino workers, which increased by 3.2 percent to $17.3 billion, and 8 percent to $4.9 billion, respectively.

Inflows from compensation of land-based workers with contracts of one year or more went up to $18.8 billion from US$18.2 billion in the same period last year.

Remittance inflows from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed higher at $5.3 billion from $4.9 billion a year ago.

Cash remittances sent through banks by overseas workers with contracts of less than one year rose to $2.4 billion in September 2019 from $2.2 billion last year. This brought cash remittances higher in the first nine months of this year to $22.2 billion from $21.3 billion recorded in the same period last year.

By country source, the US again posted the highest share of the total remittances for January to September 2019 at 37.5 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Japan, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.3 percent of the total cash remittances during the first nine months of 2019.