Remittances growth slowed in first 4 months

The growth in cash sent home by Filipinos overseas through banks slowed to 3.1 percent year-on-year as of end-April even as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said there was sustained demand for overseas workers despite a weak global economy.

BSP data released Wednesday showed that cash remittances in the first four months rose to $8.7 billion from $8.4 billion a year ago, although the rate of increase was below the 8.9 percent posted last year.

As of end-April, “cash remittances from both land-based ($6.8 billion) and sea-based ($1.9 billion) workers grew by 3.8 percent and 0.8 percent year-on-year, respectively,” the BSP noted in a statement.

The top sources of overseas Filipinos’ remittances during the first four months were Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, with these 10 countries accounting for over 75 percent of the total.

“The sustained demand for overseas Filipino workers continued to provide support to the growth of remittance inflows. Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration indicated that a total of 777,887 contracts were processed in the first four months of 2016,” the BSP said.

In April alone, cash remittances increased 4.1 percent to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion in the same month last year, also slower than the 6.4-percent growth posted a year ago.

April was the third straight month that remittance inflows exceeded the $2 billion, following the five-month low of $1.997 billion in January.

End-2015 cash remittances grew 4.6 percent to $25.8 billion, hence exceeding the 4-percent growth target, albeit slower than the 7.2-percent year-on-year expansion posted in 2014.

For 2016, the BSP expects cash remittances to grow by 4 percent.

However, UK-based Standard Chartered Bank said in a note to clients that it was “concerned about remittance growth this year, and (expects0 the current account surplus to narrow to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product from 2.9 percent in 2015.”