MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers increased 7.1 percent in July to $2.283 billion from $2.131 billion a year ago on sustained demand for local skilled workers abroad, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Friday.
The July expansion was faster than the 5.7-percent growth a month ago. The figure brought cash remittances in the first seven months to $16.095 billion, up 5 percent from $15.323 billion a year ago.
“The sustained increase in remittances was supported by stable demand for skilled Filipino workers abroad,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.
Cash remittances from land-based workers (at $1.8 billion) and from sea-based workers (at $0.5 billion), posted 6.8 percent and 8.4 percent growth, respectively compared to the levels a year ago.
The primary sources of cash remittances during the month are the United States (with 3.3 percentage points contribution), United Arab Emirates (1.1 percentage points), Singapore (0.8 percentage point), and Japan (0.6 percentage point).
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, grew 8.7 percent in July to $2.559 billion from $2.355 billion a year ago. This brought personal remittances in the first seven months to $17.923 billion, up 5.9 percent from the $16.923 billion on year.
Current account, one of the main components of the balance of payments, meanwhile, posted a lower deficit of $234 million in the first half from $424 million in the same period last year.
The deficit accounted for around 0.2 percent of gross domestic product, lower than the 0.3 percent of GDP a year ago.
Bangko Sentral deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said in a briefing the improvement in the current account was driven by “increased net receipts in the trade-in services, and secondary and primary income accounts which partly negated the widening deficit in the trade-in-goods account.”