Growth in remittances slows to 1.9% in May

The growth in cash sent home by Filipinos abroad through banks slowed to 1.9 percent year-on-year in May despite sustained demand for overseas workers, according to documents released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Friday.

Cash remittances last May rose to $2.19 billion from $2.15 billion a year ago, with the rate of increase below the 9.6-percent jump a year ago and the 4.1-percent growth a month ago.

This brought cash remittances from Filipinos overseas to $10.86 billion from January to may, up 2.9 percent from $10.56 billion in the first five months of last year.

The growth in remittances during the January-to-May period was likewise slower than the 9.1-percent increase in the same period a year ago.

As of May, cash remittances from land-based Filipino workers abroad reached $8.5 billion while those from sea-based employees amounted to $2.4 billion.

Four-fifths of the total end-May remittances came from Filipinos living or working in Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.

According to the BSP, “the steady deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remained a key driver behind the sustained inflows of remittances.”

“Preliminary data from the Philippine Over  seas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the number of deployed workers reached 211,799 for the period January-to-May 2016, of which more than 80 percent were in services and sales, elementary occupations such as those working in the agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining, construction, manufacturing and transport sectors, and craft and related trades workers. These workers were deployed mostly to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” the BSP said.