OFW cash remittances up 10.7% in March

MANILA, Philippines – Cash remittances, or those coursed through banks, by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) rose after a steady couple of months to hit $2.615 billion in March 2017, based on preliminary data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday, May 15.

March’s figure is 10.7% higher than the level posted in the same month in 2016. It is also up compared to the $2.169 billion recorded both in January and February of this year.

Total cash remittances for the 1st quarter of 2017 now stand at $6.953 billion, up by 7.7% compared to the same period last year.

Cash remittances for the quarter from land-based workers grew by 10.4% to $5.6 billion, compensating for the 2.0% decrease in sea-based workers’ transfers to $1.4 billion. 

Almost 80% of the cash remittances for the 1st quarter of 2017 came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Canada.

Personal remittances also up

Personal remittances from OFWs also grew by 11.8% year-on-year in March to reach a new record high of $2.9 billion, according to the BSP.

This brought the total personal remittances for the 1st quarter of 2017 to $7.7 billion, 8.1% higher than the level posted in the same period a year ago.

The increase in personal remittances during the 1st quarter was driven by the 10.5% growth in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which offset a 2.0% decrease in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year. – Rappler.com