Philippine remittances hit USD 3.02 billion in January

Cash remittances sent by overseas Filipinos rose to USD 3.02 billion in January 2026, up 3.5 percent from USD 2.92 billion in January 2025, according to a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas press release dated March 16, 2026. 

The BSP said personal remittances, which include cash sent through banks and informal channels as well as remittances in kind, climbed 3.5 percent to USD 3.36 billion from USD 3.24 billion a year earlier. 

The United States remained the top source of cash remittances to the Philippines in January 2026, followed by Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. 

The central bank’s breakdown showed land-based workers accounted for USD 2.41 billion in cash remittances in January 2026, up from USD 2.33 billion in January 2025, while sea-based workers sent USD 0.61 billion, up from USD 0.59 billion a year earlier. 

On a monthly, seasonally adjusted basis, personal remittances stood at USD 3.359 billion in January 2026, slightly above the unadjusted USD 3.358 billion, while cash remittances totaled USD 3.020 billion. The BSP’s table also showed cash remittances were down 1.9 percent month on month on a seasonally adjusted basis, even as both personal and cash remittances posted 3.5 percent year-on-year growth. 

By country share, the United States accounted for 40.2 percent of total cash remittances in January, followed by Singapore at 7.6 percent, Saudi Arabia at 6.7 percent, Japan at 5.8 percent, the United Kingdom at 4.6 percent, the United Arab Emirates at 3.7 percent, Canada at 3.0 percent, Taiwan at 2.9 percent, Qatar at 2.9 percent, Hong Kong SAR, China at 2.5 percent, and other sources at 20.2 percent. 

For land-based cash remittances, the United States held a 42.8 percent share, followed by Saudi Arabia at 8.3 percent, Singapore at 6.7 percent, Japan at 4.9 percent, the United Arab Emirates at 4.0 percent, and others at 33.0 percent. 

For sea-based cash remittances, the United States accounted for 31.0 percent, followed by Singapore at 10.8 percent, Japan at 9.9 percent, the United Kingdom at 6.8 percent, Germany at 6.7 percent, and others at 34.7 percent. The BSP noted that details may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. 

The historical table also showed a steady rise in January remittance levels over the past four years. Personal remittances increased from USD 3.071 billion in January 2023 to USD 3.153 billion in January 2024, USD 3.243 billion in January 2025, and USD 3.358 billion in January 2026, while cash remittances rose from USD 2.762 billion to USD 2.836 billion, USD 2.918 billion, and USD 3.020 billion over the same periods. 

For context, personal remittances cover net compensation of employees, personal transfers, and capital transfers between households, while the BSP said the seasonally adjusted series is generated using the X-13ARIMA-SEATS method developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. The table marked the 2026 figures as preliminary, and it did not yet provide first-quarter or full-year remittances as a share of gross domestic product for 2026. 

The BSP’s accompanying data showed remittances as a share of GDP at 7.7 percent for personal remittances and 8.5 percent for cash remittances in 2023, 7.5 percent and 8.3 percent in 2024, and 7.3 percent and 8.1 percent in 2025. 

The BSP cautioned that remittance data by source country has limitations because remittance centers abroad often route transfers through correspondent banks, many of them in the United States. It added that money courier transactions also cannot always be broken down by the actual country of origin and are instead recorded under the country where the firms’ main offices are located, which in many cases is also the United States. 

That reporting treatment helps explain why the United States consistently appears as the biggest source of overseas Filipino remittances, even when the underlying earnings are generated across multiple labor markets. The BSP said banks generally attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source.