Filipinos working abroad sent more money home in January 2024 compared to the same month last year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Data from the BSP showed that cash remittances coursed through banks went up by 2.7 percent to $2.84 billion in January 2024 from $2.76 billion a year ago.
“The growth in cash remittances in January 2024 was primarily due to increased receipts from both land- and sea-based workers,” the BSP said in a statement.
It said the growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore contributed mainly to the increase in January remittances.
Personal remittances, excluded non-cash items, also went up by 2.7 percent in January to $3.15 billion from $3.07 billion in the same month last year.
“The increase in personal remittances in January 2024 was driven by increased remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year,” the BSP said.
It said that in terms of the countries where these remittances originated, the BSP said the US had the highest share of overall remittances during the period, followed by Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), said the modest growth in OFW remittances could continue in the coming months as OFW families/dependents needed to cope with relatively higher prices/inflation locally that would require the sending of more money.
Ricafort said, however, the risk of economic slowdown or even recession in the US partly due to aggressive Fed rate hikes since March 2022 could be a drag for OFW remittances especially if there would be job losses for some OFWs.
This would be offset by the economic reopening in China, the world’s second biggest economy.
OFWs sent a record-breaking $37.2 billion in personal remittances to the Philippines in 2023, up by 3.0 percent from $36.1 billion in 2022.
This translated into a monthly average of $3.1 billion, with December 2023 hitting a peak of $3.6 billion from $3.5 billion in the same period in 2022.