Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas jumped 10.7 percent in March to a record $2.615 billion from $2.362 billion a year ago, as demand for Filipino talents continues to be strong abroad.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed cash remittances in March also exceeded February’s $2.169 billion. This brought cash remittances in the first quarter to $6.953 billion, up 7.7 percent from $6.457 billion registered in the same quarter last year.
“Remittances sent by land-based workers [at $2.1 billion] and sea-based workers [at $0.5 billion] increased by 12.8 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, compared to the levels in the same month a year ago,” Bangko Sentral said.
Cash remittances came mostly from the United States [with 3.9 percentage points contribution to the 10.7 percent aggregate growth], Canada and United Arab Emirates [each contributing 2.1 percentage points], Japan [1 percentage point] and Hong Kong [0.8 percentage point].
Almost 80 percent of the cash remittances in the first quarter came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Canada.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also climbed 11.8 percent in March to $2.915 billion from $2.606 billion a year earlier, bringing total personal remittances in the first quarter to $7.709 billion, up 8.1 percent from $7.134 billion a year ago.
The increase in personal remittances in the first quarter was driven by the 10.5-percent growth in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, making up for the 2-percent decrease in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year.
The strong remittance growth, combined with robust exports, are expected to boost gross domestic product figures in the first quarter. The Agriculture Department also reported that farm production grew 5.3 percent in January to March.
Remittances support the growth of various sectors such as banking, real estate, automotive, education, healthcare and retail in the Philippines. Last year, remittances hit a record $26.9 billion, up by 5 percent from $25.6 billion in 2015.
The 5-percent expansion surpassed Bangko Sentral’s projection of a 4-percent growth last year and the 4-percent growth in 2015.
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, due to the decline in cash transfers from the United Kingdom.
Remittances represented 8.1 percent of the country’s gross national income and 9.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2016. GDP last year grew 6.9 percent.
Bangko Sentral projected a conservative 4-percent growth in remittances this year.
