Cash remittances sent home by Overseas Filipinos increased by 6.3 percent year-on-year as of end-May to $12.280 billion from $11.554 billion in 2020, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Tuesday.
For the month of May only, cash remittances which are transferred via banks and are easily captured data by the BSP, went up by 13.1 percent to $2.382 billion from $2.106 billion same period last year.
The bank-channelled remittances of land-based workers rose by 16.2 percent year-on-year to $1.894 billion while sea-based workers sent $1.631 billion, up 2.7 percent year-on-year.
The US, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, and Canada are top sources of remittances during the first five months of 2021.
The BSP noted that the US continue to have the highest share of overall remittances with 40.1 percent. Most correspondent banks used by remittance companies are located in the US and it will reflect as the country of source.
Other top sources of remittances are Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar, and Taiwan. “The combined remittances from these ten countries accounted for 78.3 percent of total cash remittances,” said the BSP.
The government forecasts cash remittances will resume its four-percent annual growth this year after the pandemic-induced 0.8 percent contraction in 2020.
The BSP also reports personal remittances which is the sum of personal transfers and compensation of employees. It used to be called the “padala system” before formalizing the data reporting in 2011.
Personal remittances increased by 6.6 percent year-on-year as of end-May to $13.680 billion from $12.835 billion.
For the month of May alone, personal remittances went up by 13.3 percent to $2.652 billion from $2.341 billion last year.
Land-based workers with one-year contracts remitted $2.056 billion in May which was 16.2 percent higher year-on-year. Sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year transferred $532 million, up by 2.7 percent year-on-year.