OFWs increase October remittances to families

Dollars sent home by Filipinos abroad grew slightly in October as land-based contract workers sent more money to their local beneficiaries, thus narrowing the year-to-date annual decline caused by the pandemic-related job losses.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said personal remittances from the country’s overseas citizens grew by 2.5 percent to $3.04 billion in October 2020 from $2.97 billion in October last year.

“The growth was attributed to the increase in remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to $2.37 billion in October 2020, 3.3-percent higher than the $2.3 billion recorded in October 2019,” the regulator said.

Similarly, remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than a year rose slightly by 1.2 percent to $612 million in October 2020 from $605 million a year ago.

ING Bank Manila’s senior economist Nicholas Mapa said the country’s expatriate workers “continue to prove doubters wrong, finding a way to send home their hard-earned remittances despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.”

“The two-month pickup is welcome as remittances augment weaker domestic incomes with the Philippine economy in full blown recession,” he said in an emailed statement. “The slower pace in remittance flows from the previous month may reflect the impact of renewed lockdowns imposed by authorities in host nations as COVID-19 infections spiked during period.”

He said the fact that remittances continued to rise even after 300,000 workers were repatriated and the global economy faces recession was truly impressive and a testament to the grit and heart of the country’s modern day heroes, but noted that the increase in remittances in dollar terms might mean that overseas workers were asked to bear the brunt of the local downturn.

For the 10 months to October of 2020, personal remittances reached $27.35 billion from $27.61 billion recorded a year ago, bringing the cumulative contraction to 1 percent in October from 1.4 percent in September 2020.

Likewise, overseas Filipinos’ cash remittances that were coursed through the banks rose by 2.9 percent to $2.75 billion in October 2020 from $2.67 billion in October 2019.

The cental bank said this increase was due to the growth in remittances from both land- ($2.186 billion) and sea-based ($561.2 million) workers by 3.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

For the January-October 2020 period, overseas Filipinos’ cash remittances amounted to $24.63 billion, representing a slight decrease of 0.9 percent from the $24.86 billion registered in the comparative period last year.

By country source, cash remittances from Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Kuwait declined, while those from the United States, Singapore, Qatar, Oman, Hong Kong and Taiwan increased. INQ