Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) rose by 4.8 percent to US$2.889 billion in August 2021 from US$2.756 billion in the same month last year. This resulted in the increase in cumulative remittances by 5.9 percent in the first eight months of 2021 to US$22.672 billion from US$21.414 billion recorded in the same period in 2020.
The growth in personal remittances in August was due to remittances sent by 1) land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which increased by 4.2 percent to US$2.207 billion from US$2.118 billion in the same month last year, and 2) sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which grew by 8.4 percent to US$629 million from US$580 million a year ago.
Of the personal remittances from OFs, cash remittances coursed through banks grew by 5.1 percent to US$2.609 billion in August 2021 from US$2.483 billion registered in the same month last year. The growth in cash remittances was due to the increase in remittances from land-based workers and sea-based workers, which rose by 4.1 percent (to US$2.032 billion from US$1.952 billion) and 8.6 percent (to US$577 million from US$531 million), respectively. On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances in January-August 2021 amounted to US$20.38 billion, 5.7 percent higher than the year-ago level of US$19.285 billion.
The growth in cash remittances from the United States (US), Malaysia, and South Korea contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January-August 2021. Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 40.7 percent in the first eight months of 2021, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar, and Taiwan.1 The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 78.8 percent of total cash remittances. -rir
(1) There are some limitations on the remittance data by source. A common practice of remittance centers in various cities abroad is to course remittances through correspondent banks, most of which are located in the U.S. Also, remittances coursed through money couriers cannot be disaggregated by actual country source and are lodged under the country where the main offices are located, which, in many cases, is in the U.S. Therefore, the U.S. would appear to be the main source of OF remittances because banks attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source. The countries are listed in order of their share of cash remittances, i.e., from highest to lowest.
See table here.
