Personal remittances in Jan-Apr 2019 total US$10.8B

PERSONAL remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) grew by 3.7 percent year-on-year to US$2.7 billion in April 2019 from US$2.6 billion in April 2018.

On a cumulative basis, personal remittances for the first four months of 2019 totaled US$10.8 billion, higher by 3.7 percent than the US$10.4 billion level recorded in the same period last year, said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno on June 17, 2019.

The continued growth in personal remittances during the first four months of 2019 was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which aggregated to US$8.2 billion from US$8.1 billion in the same period last year.

Inflows from the compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed to this growth and totaled US$2.3 billion from US$2.1 billion a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks amounted to US$2.4 billion in April 2019, an increase of 4 percent year-on-year from the US$2.3 billion recorded in April 2018.

This growth was supported by remittances from both land-based (US$1.8 billion) and sea-based (US$0.6 billion) workers, which rose by 2.2 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. This brought cash remittances for January-April 2019 to US$9.7 billion, higher by 4.1 percent compared to the January-April 2018 level of US$9.4 billion.

By country source, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances for January to April 2019 at 35.9 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar and Germany.

The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78 percent of total cash remittances from January to April 2019.