Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas grew 4.1 percent in April to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion a year ago, amid sustained demand for skilled workers abroad, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Wednesday.
The April expansion made up for the revised 1.2-percent decline in March. This brought cash remittances in the first four months to $8.67 billion, up by 3.1 percent from $8.4 billion a year ago.
“Cash remittances from both land-based [$6.8 billion] and sea-based [$1.9 billion] workers grew by 3.8 percent and 0.8 percent year-on-year, respectively. More than three-fourths of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Germany,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also increased 3.8 percent in April to $2.44 billion from $2.35 billion a year ago. This brought total personal remittances in the first four months to $9.577 billion, up 3 percent from $9.3 billion last year.
“The continued growth in personal remittances was due mainly to the steady remittance inflows from land-based overseas Filipino workers with work contracts of one year or more, amounting $7.3 billion, and compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts [excluding their expenditures abroad], which reached $2.1 billion,” Bangko Sentral said.
It said the sustained demand for Filipino workers abroad continued to provide support to the growth of remittance inflows.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that a
total of 777,887 contracts were processed in the first four months of 2016.
DBS Bank of Singapore said at the current pace, total remittances this year would likely hit a record $27 billion, or close to a 5-percent growth from last year.
“This is important on several fronts. Firstly, with the agriculture sector still under the cosh, remittance flows are crucial to prop up household spending in the rural areas. As a result, consumption growth is set to remain robust at 6.2 percent this year. Secondly, as we have
noted previously, robust remittance flows also offset any drag on the external balance stemming from weak merchandise export growth,” DBS said.
Cash remittances grew 4.6 percent in 2015 to $25.767 billion from $24.628 billion in 2014. It accounted for around 10 percent of gross domestic product.
Bangko Sentral predicted a four-percent growth in remittances this year.
