Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas climbed 7.8 percent in August from a year ago, on sustained global demand for Filipino talents, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.
The Bangko Sentral said cash remittances hit a five-month high of $2.5 billion in August, up from $2.3 billion a year earlier.
This brought cash remittances in the first eight months to $18.595 billion, up 5.4 percent from $17.642 billion in the same period last year.
“The sustained influx of remittances was observed from both land-based workers [$14.7 billion] and sea-based workers [$3.9 billion], which grew by 6 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively,” the regulator said.
The bulk of cash remittances or 82.5 percent of the total remittances in the first eight months came from the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Japan, the UK, Qatar, Kuwait, Germany and Hong Kong.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also increased 9.4 percent in August to a five-month high of $2.8 billion from $2.559 billion a year ago.
Personal remittances in the first eight months reached $20.723 billion, up 6.4 percent from $19.482
billion a year ago.
“The increase in personal remittances was driven largely by the sustained inflow of transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more [at $16 billion] and remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year at $4.2 billion,” the Bangko Sentral said.
Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration earlier showed that the total number of Filipino workers deployed abroad reached 1,222,003 in January to July this year.
The Bangko Sentral retained a conservative 4-percent growth target for remittances this year amid the improving trade and rosy outlook of the global economy.
Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the 4-percent expansion would translate into a record $28 billion in remittances this year, up from $26.9 billion in 2016.
Remittances together with business process outsourcing receipts account for around $50-billion inflows annually and support the country’s strong external payments position.
