Money sent home by around 10 million Filipinos working overseas fell 0.6 percent in August from a year ago, the first time in more than 12 years, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Thursday.
Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Vicente Aquino said in a statement cash remittances in August amounted to $2.044 billion, down from $2.057 billion recorded in the same month last year. It was also lower than $2.078 billion received in July.
It was the first contraction of cash remittances in 12 years, or since April 2003, when the figure fell 10.9 percent year-on-year, data showed.
“This was partly due to the depreciation of some currencies against the US dollar, particularly the euro, Canadian dollar and Japanese yen, which reduced the dollar equivalent of remittances sent from host countries,” Aquino said.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also dropped 0.8 percent in August to $2.26 billion from $2.28 billion, data showed.
Remittances account for about a tenth of the gross national income and support various industries in the Philippines, including banking, real estate, education, healthcare and retail.
The Bangko Sentral said despite the decline in August, cash remittances in the first eighth months still grew 4.2 percent to $16.206 from $15.572 billion a year ago.
Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers totaled $12.4 billion and $3.8 billion, respectively. The bulk of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.
Personal remittances rose 3.9 percent in the first eight months to $17.933 billion from $17.268 billion a year ago.
“Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more grew by 4.6 percent during the eight-month period while those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose by 2.4 percent,” Aquino said.
Aquino said the steady deployment of overseas Filipino workers continued to provide support to remittance inflows. Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed total job orders in the first eight months reached 584,816, of which 41.5 percent were processed.
These job orders were intended mainly for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Bangko Sentral earlier said the efforts of banks and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through their network of remittance business partners worldwide provided support to the steady remittance flows.
Remittances fuel private consumption and one of the backbones of economic growth. Last year, cash remittances posted a record $24.308 billion, or 5.8-percent higher than $22.968 billion in 2013.
Bangko Sentral is aiming for a conservative 5-percent growth in remittances this year.