OFW remittance up 7.2% to $2.9B in July
Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:50:17 +0000
MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) surged in July, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed on Monday.
In a statement, the BSP said personal remittances — comprised of OFWs’ net compensation; personal transfers (cash or in-kind); and capital transfers between households — reached $2.9 billion in the month, 7.2 percent higher than the $2.7 billion a year ago.
From January to July, personal remittances touched $19.1 billion, up by 3.6 percent from $18.5 billion in 2018.
“The steady growth in personal remittances during the first seven months of 2019 drew support from the remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which aggregated to $14.6 billion from $14.2 billion in the same period last year,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said.
Inflows from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts amounted to $4.1 billion against $3.8 billion a year earlier.
Moreover, cash remittances coursed through banks rose to $2.6 billion in July, 7.5 percent higher than the $2.4 billion in the same period in 2018.
Seven-month cash remittances rose by 3.9 percent to $17.2 billion from $16.6 billion last year.
“Remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 2.5 percent to $13.4 billion and 8.9 percent to $3.8 billion, respectively,” BSP added.
The US registered the highest share of overall remittances for the period at 36.8 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait.
“The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.1 percent of total cash remittances from January to July 2019,” Diokno said.