Overseas Filipinos sent home $5.177 billion of cash remittances via the banking system in the first two months of 2022, up by 1.9 percent from same period last year of $5.078 billion.
Based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data, bank-transferred remittances for the month of February alone rose by 1.3 percent to $2.509 billion from $2.476 billion same month in 2021.
However, compared to January 2022’s $2.668 billion, the February remittances was down by 5.95 percent.
The BSP attributed the increase in the February fund transfers to land-based workers’ remittances of $2.007 billion which was up by 1.2 percent year-on-year, and from sea-based workers’ $501 million remittances, also up by 1.6 percent year-on-year.
Overseas Filipinos based in the US, Japan, and Singapore contributed largely to the increase in remittances in the first two months of 2022, said the BSP.
“In terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 41.6 percent in January-February 2022, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and Malaysia,” said the BSP. The top 10 countries’ combined remittances accounted for 79.3 percent of the total.
Personal remittances which used to be called the “padala system” as of end February reached $5.759 billion, up 1.9 percent from $5.653 billion in 2021.
For the month of February only, personal remittances rose by 1.2 percent to $2.793 billion from $2.759 billion last year. Compared to January 2022’s $2.966 billion, remittances fell by 5.83 percent.
The BSP said the February personal remittances was slower “due in part to the reimposition of restrictions in OF (overseas Filipinos) host countries and the Philippines amid a resurgence in COVID cases across the globe.”
Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more also increased by 1.3 percent year-on-year to $2.18 billion in February while sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, also rose by 1.5 percent year-on-year to $547 million.
For this year, the BSP is projecting cash remittances to grow by four percent.
BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said in March that it is possible for remittances to grow higher or by five percent this year although the official forecast is four percent. Since 2010, after the Global Financial Crisis, the country’s remittances have “generally moved steadily along its five-year and ten-year long term average growth of between four to six percent,” noted Diokno.
Last year, cash remittances increased by 5.1 percent year-on-year to a record high of $31.418 billion but was off the expected six percent growth for the year.
The BSP has been pursuing initiatives to enhance the environment of remittances as one of the country’s primary foreign currency source. These include the following: enhancing transparency and fostering competition in the remittance market; promoting efficient and speedy transfer of funds to beneficiaries particularly in remote areas of the country; and encouraging overseas Filipinos and their families to channel remittances into savings and investments.