Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas rose 2 percent in November 2019 to $2.37 billion from $2.32 billion a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Wednesday.
The latest figure brought cash remittances in the first 11 months to $27.23 billion, up 4.4 percent from $26.094 billion a year earlier.
“By type of worker, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 3.6 percent to $21.3 billion, and 7.3 percent to $6 billion, respectively,” the BSP said in a statement.
The United States remained the top source of remittances with 37.7 percent of the total from January to November 2019. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, and Qatar.
The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances during the period.
Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also increased by 2 percent in November to $2.63 billion from $2.58 billion a year ago, bringing the 11-month figure to $30.252 billion, up 4.1 percent from $29.1 billion in the same period in 2018.
“The steady growth in personal remittances during the first eleven months of 2019 drew support from the remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 3.6 percent to $23.1 billion from $22.3 billion in the same period last year,” it said.
The combined remittances of sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts rose 7.3 percent to $6.5 billion in the first 11 months of 2019 from $6 billion a year ago.
Cash remittances reached a record $28.9 billion in 2018, up 3.1 percent from $28.06 billion in 2017.
The BSP was eyeing a conservative 3-percent growth for 2019 remittances.