MANILA, Philippines—Dollars sent home by expatriate Filipinos continued to rise in June resulting in a similar increase for the first semester of the year and defying the ill economic effects of a raging pandemic around the world, data from the central bank showed.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), personal remittances from Filipinos overseas increased by 7.3 percent to $2.936 billion in June 2021 from $2.737 billion in June 2020.
This resulted in cumulative remittances rising by 6.7 percent to $16.616 billion in the first half of 2021 from $15.573 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2020.
“The rise in total personal remittances in June was due to the remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 7.1 percent to $2.319 billion from the $2.164 billion in June 2020,” the BSP said.
It added that remittances from sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year also increased by 6.4 percent to $548 million from $515 million in 2020.
Similarly, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose by 7 percent to $2.638 billion in June 2021 from $2.465 billion recorded in the same month last year.
Cash remittances expanded, following the increase in receipts from land-based workers by 7.1 percent to $2.136 billion from $1.994 billion, and sea-based workers by 6.5 percent to $502 million from $472 million.
On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances rose to $14.918 billion in the first half of 2021, higher by 6.4 percent than the year-ago level of $14.019 billion.
The growth in cash remittances from January to June came largely from the United States, Malaysia and South Korea.
The BSP noted that the US usually appears as the main source of remittances because banks attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source, and a common practice of remittance centers in various cities abroad is to course remittances through correspondent banks, most of which are located in the US.
Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 40.1 percent in the first six months of 2021, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar and Taiwan.
The combined remittances from these top 10 countries accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances.