’Steady remittance’ from Filipinos abroad brings in more dollars, says BSP

The amount of dollars sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to rise in September as both land- and sea-based workers remitted more cash to their local beneficiaries, according to the latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The central bank said that personal remittances from Filipinos either working or living abroad hit $2.6 billion in September 2019, up 6.3 percent from the $2.5 billion reported in the same period in 2018.

This brought personal remittances in the first nine months of 2019 to $24.6 billion, up by 3.9 percent from $23.7 billion from 2018.

The growth in dollar volume being sent home by Filipinos overseas, said the BSP, “was driven by steady remittance inflows.”

These were mostly from land-based overseas Filipinos “with work contracts of one year or more,” the BSP said. Remittance from this sector grew to $18.8 billion from $18.2 billion in 2018.

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