Personal remittances up by 3.8% YoY to US$2.7 billion in April 2022

Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) grew by 3.8 percent year-on-year to reach US$2.671 billion in April 2022 from US$2.574 billion recorded in the same month last year.

This resulted in cumulative personal remittances rising by 2.6 percent in the first four months of 2022 to US$11.317 billion from US$11.028 billion registered in the comparable period in 2021.

The increase in personal remittances in April was due to remittances sent by 1) land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which increased by 4.7 percent to US$2.022 billion from US$1.931 billion in the same month last year, and 2) sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which grew by 1.4 percent to US$581 million from US$574 million a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks reached US$2.395 billion in April 2022, 3.9 percent higher than the US$2.305 billion posted in the same month in 2021.

The expansion in cash remittances was due to the growth in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which increased by 4.7 percent (to US$1.863 billion from US$1.779 billion) and 1.4 percent (to US$533 million from US$526 million), respectively.

On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances grew by 2.7 percent to US$10.167 billion from US$9.898 billion registered in the comparable period last year.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States (US), Saudi Arabia, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January – April of 2022.

Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 41.2 percent in the first four months of 2022, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Qatar, South Korea, and Taiwan.^[1]

The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 79.2 percent of total cash remittances during the period.

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^[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.