Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers increased 3.4 percent in February to $2.169 billion from $2.098 billion a year ago, driven by sustained demand for Filipino talents abroad, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.
The February expansion, however, was slower than the 8.6-percent growth registered in January.
“The US, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan were the major contributors to growth in cash remittances in February,” Bangko Sentral said.
Cash remittances in the first two months grew 5.9 percent to $4.338 billion from $4.095 billion a year ago.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also rose 3.3 percent in February to $2.397 billion from $2.32 billion a year earlier. This brought personal remittances in the first two months to $4.794 billion, up 5.9 percent from $4.528 billion in the same period last year.
Remittances rose 5 percent to a record $26.9 billion in 2016 from $25.607 billion in 2015.
The 5-percent expansion surpassed Bangko Sentral’s projection of a 4-percent growth last year and the 4-percent actual growth a year ago.
Remittances from Asia rose 7.4 percent, buoyed by transfers originating from Singapore, Japan, China and Taiwan. Transfers from the Americas increased 3.8 percent, the major contributor of which was the 6.2-percent growth in remittances from the US.
Remittances from Europe, however, fell 8.4 percent, with the decline in cash transfers from the United Kingdom because of the depreciation of the pound against the US dollar. Inflows from Italy and the Netherlands also fell.
More than 80 percent of the total remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, the UK, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Germany.
The solid growth in remittances remained one of the strong backbones of economic growth. Last year, remittances represented 8.1 percent of the gross national income and 9.8 percent of gross domestic product. GDP last year grew 6.9 percent.
Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said remittances would continue to be stable in the coming months despite the recent decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut oil production that could affect the demand for local skilled workers abroad.
Bangko Sentral projected a conservative 4-percent growth for remittances this year.
