Remittances up 5.7% in first 5 months to $8.9B

Cash transfers from the country’s migrant workers rose in May in line with government expectations as Filipinos remained in demand to fill both skilled and unskilled positions around the world.

This supported expectations that domestic consumption, which remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) support, would stay strong this year, helping prop up economic growth.

“The sustained expansion in remittances during the first five months of 2014 was underpinned by the steady growth in remittance flows from both land-based workers with long-term contracts, and land-based and sea-based workers with short-term contracts,” the central bank said.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released Tuesday showed remittances rose by 5.4 percent in May to $2 billion. The growth was slightly better than the 5.2 percent recorded in April.

Year-to-date, remittances reached $8.9 billion or 5.7-percent up from the same five-month period in 2013.

Economic managers expect remittances to grow by 5 percent this year to reach a record high $24 billion. Last year, these cash transfers made up more than 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Remittances are also a strong driver of domestic consumption, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy.

Over three-quarters or 76 percent of remittances were from seven top markets, namely the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.