MANILA — As expected by the market, remittances in April made a positive turnaround after declining in March, when there were fewer banking days due to the Holy Week holidays.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. reported Monday that personal remittances in April this year amounted to USD2.62 billion from USD2.32 billion in April 2017, increasing by 12.9 percent. This is a rebound from a 9.9-percent decrement in March this year.
This also made four-month remittances figure to rise by 4 percent to USD10.43 billion this year from USD10.03 billion worth of personal remittances in the same period a year ago.
The central bank noted that steady remittances from land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with work contract not less than 12 months have driven the inflow of remittances in January to April period.
Remittances of land-based OFWs from January to April this year reached USD8.1 billion.
On the other hand, sea-based OFWs and land-based OFWs with short-term contracts remitted some USD2.1 billion in the first four months of the year.
Meanwhile, cash remittances coursed by overseas Filipinos through banks in January to April this year went up by 12.7 percent to USD9.35 billion from USD9.04 billion in the same period in 2017.
The top 10 sources of cash remittances for the country for the first four months of the year were United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Qatar, and Kuwait. These countries shared 80 percent of the total cash remittances in January to April period.
Cash remittances from the US rose 5.8 percent year-to-date to USD3.17 billion this year from USD2.99 billion in 2017.
On the other hand, BSP data showed that cash remittances from the Middle East declined by 10.5 percent, as remittances from Saudi Arabia declined by 12.4 percent to USD745 million; remittances from UAE slipped by 1 percent to USD734 million; Qatar, down by 7.8 percent to USD350 million; and Kuwait, dropped by 8.9 percent to USD234 million. (Kris Crismundo/PNA)
