Personal remittances post US$2.8B in November 2021

Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) grew by 4.8 percent to US$2.77 billion in November 2021 from US$2.643 billion recorded in the same month last year.

This resulted in the increase of cumulative personal remittances to US$31.586 billion, or by 5.3 percent in the first eleven months of 2021 from US$29.988 billion in the comparable period in 2020.

The increase in personal remittances in November was due to remittances sent by 1) land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 6.3 percent to US$2.137 billion from US$2.01 billion in the same month last year, and 2) sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which rose by 1.0 percent to US$581 million from
US$575 million a year ago.

Of the personal remittances from OFs, cash remittances coursed through banks reached US$2.502 billion in November 2021, higher by 5.1 percent than the US$2.379 billion registered in the same month in 2020.

The expansion in cash remittances was due to the increase in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which grew by 6.3 percent (to US$1.968 billion from US$1.852 billion) and 1.2 percent (to US$534 million from US$527 million), respectively.

From January to November 2021, cash remittances increased by 5.2 percent to US$28.43 billion from the year-ago level of US$27.013 billion.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States (U.S.), Taiwan, and Malaysia contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January-November 2021.

Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the U.S. posted the highest share of overall remittances at 40.7 percent in the first eleven months of 2021, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and South Korea.^[1]

The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 78.9 percent of total cash remittances during the period.

^[1] There are some limitations on the remittance data by source. A common practice of remittance centers in various cities abroad is to course remittances through correspondent banks, most of which are located in the U.S. Also, remittances coursed through money couriers cannot be disaggregated by actual country source and are lodged under the country where the main offices are located, which, in many cases, is in the U.S. Therefore, the U.S. would appear to be the main source of OF remittances because banks attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source. The countries are listed in order of their share of cash remittances, i.e., from highest to lowest.