$2.745B sent home by OFWs in January
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 16:18:39 +0000
MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) fell to a two-month low in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday.
Personal remittances — comprising OFWs’ net compensation, personal transfers whether in the form of cash or in kind, and capital transfers between households — totaled $2.745 billion, 3.4
percent higher than the $2.655 billion posted a year earlier but 13 percent lower compared to the record $3.157 billion booked the prior month.
It was also the lowest since November 2018’s $2.586 billion.
“Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose to $2.12 billion, 2.3 percent higher than the $2.07 billion recorded in January 2018,” central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.
Remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, meanwhile, rose by 12.6 percent to $0.58 billion from $0.52 billion.
Cash remittances, which only count money coursed through banks, rose by 4.4 percent to $2.484 billion in January from $2.379 billion a year earlier.
“This growth was in line with the increase in remittances from both land-based ($1.95 billion) and sea-based ($0.53 billion) workers, which rose by 2.3 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively,” Diokno said.
It was down 12.8 percent, however, from the $2.849 billion recorded in December 2018.
The United States accounted for the highest share of overall remittances at 35.5 percent in January. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Hong Kong and Kuwait.
“The combined remittances from these countries accounted for almost 78 percent of total cash remittances,” Diokno said.
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