Remittance from Filipinos abroad up by $1B from last year

The amount of dollars sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to rise in October as more cash had been remitted to their local beneficiaries, according to latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The central bank said that personal remittances from Filipinos either working or living abroad hit $3 billion in the tenth month of 2019, up 7.7 percent from the $2.8 billion reported in the same period in 2018.

This brought personal remittances in the first 10 months of the year to $27.6 billion, up by 4.3 percent from $26.5 billion during the same period in 2018.

The growth in dollar volume being sent home by Filipinos overseas was driven by the growth in remittance from both land- and sea-based workers, the central bank said in its statement.

The bulk of remittance was from land-based overseas Filipinos, who had long-term contracts abroad, which increased by 3.8 percent.

The BSP data also showed that remittances from overseas workers—which are said to account for an estimated 10 percent of domestic economic activity, especially consumption—grew in every month of this year, except for a 2.7-percent decline in June.

Remittance from sea- and land-based workers with short-term contracts also increased to $5.3 billion in 2019 from $4.9 billion in 2018.

Edited by TSB