Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers in January this year rose 4.4 percent to $2.48 billion from $2.38 billion a year ago, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Friday.
“This growth was in line with the increase in remittances from both land-based ($1.95 billion) and sea-based ($0.53 billion) workers, which rose by 2.3 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively,” Diokno said in a statement.
By country source, the United States registered the highest share of overall remittances at 35.5 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Hong Kong and Kuwait.
The combined remittances from these countries accounted for almost 78 percent of total cash remittances.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also increased 3.4 percent year-on-year in January to $2.75 billion from $2.66 billion.
Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose to $2.12 billion, 2.3 percent higher than $2.07 billion recorded in January 2018.
Meanwhile, those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year increased 12.6 percent to $0.58 billion from $0.52 billion.
Cash remittances last year reached a record $28.943 billion, up 3.1 percent from $28.06 billion a year ago and surpassed slightly the revised 3-percent growth target for the entire year.
Bangko Sentral said cash remittances in 2018 remained strong amid political uncertainties across the globe. This was evident in Asia, the Americas and Europe, which grew annually by 12.3 percent, 9.7 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.
The growth in the regions made up for the 15.3-percent decrease in remittances from the Middle East, partly due to the continued repatriation program of the government.
The bulk of cash remittances for the year came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Canada, Germany and Hong Kong. Cash remittances from these countries accounted for almost 79 percent of total cash remittances.
Cash remittances in December rose 3.9 percent to an all-time high of $2.849 billion from $2.741 billion on year.