PH remittances for August rise fastest in 5 months

MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by overseas Filipinos last August saw the fastest growth in 5 months, fueled by those with work contracts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The central bank on Monday, October 16, reported that cash remittances – money sent through banks and transfer agents – grew by 7.8% to $2.5 billion (P128.02 billion) in August 2017, from the same month a year ago. This was its fastest growth since it registered a 10.7% growth in cash remittances in March 2017.

The BSP said the primary contributors to the rise in cash remittances for August were the UAE, the US, Singapore, and Qatar.

This brought the cash remittances in the 1st 8 months of 2017 to $18.6 billion (P952.66 billion) or a 5.4% increase compared to the level registered in the same period last year. (READ: Due to Trump? Filipinos in US sending more money home)

Meanwhile, personal remittances – transfers in cash and in kind through banks and hand-carried deliveries – grew by 9.4% year-on-year to reach $2.8 billion (P143.48 billion) in August.

This brought personal remittances for the 1st 8 months of 2017 to $20.7 billion (P1.06 trillion), higher by 6.4% relative to the year-ago level.

“The increase in personal remittances was driven largely by the sustained inflow of transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more [at $16 billion],” the BSP said.

For the 1st 8 months of 2017, the bulk of cash remittances – or 82.5% of the total – came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Germany, and Hong Kong. – Rappler.com

P51.2342 = $1