Cash remittances amounted to $29.38 billion as of end-November 2022, up by 3.3 percent from same period last year of $28.43 billion, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.
The BSP said on Monday, Jan. 16, that the growth in the bank-transferred cash remittances were boosted by higher remittances from the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Qatar.

“In terms of country sources, the US posted the highest share of overall remittances in the first eleven months of 2022, followed by Singapore and Saudi Arabia,” said the BSP. Due to limitations in the remittance data by source, the US will naturally emerge as top location because remittance centers abroad have correspondent banks based in the US.
As of end-November, 41.4 percent of total remittances came from the US, while 6.9 percent were from Singapore and 5.8 percent were from Saudi Arabia. Japan, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates contributed 5.1 percent, 4.7percent and 4.2 percent of total remittances, respectively.
For the month of November only, bank-channeled remittances grew by 5.7 percent to $2.644 billion versus $2.502 billion same time in 2021. Land-based overseas Filipinos remitted $2.08 billion in November, higher than last year’s $1.97 billion. Sea-based workers, on the other hand, sent home $560 million from $530 million.
The BSP said for January to November 2022, personal remittances reached $32.65 billion, up 3.4 percent from same time in 2021 of $31.58 billion.
BSP defines personal remittances as the sum of the net compensation of overseas Filipinos, personal transfers and capital transfers between households.
For the month of November alone, personal remittances totaled $2.931 billion, higher by 5.8 percent from $2.770 billion in 2021.
The increase in personal remittances was attributed to remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year.
Land-based workers sent home $2.26 billion personal remittances in November while sea-based workers remitted $620 million. These amounts were more than same period in 2021 of $2.14 billion from land-based workers and $580 million from sea-based workers.
The BSP expects cash remittances to grow by four percent year-on-year in 2022, which was unchanged from previous years’ projections, including pre-pandemic.
In 2021, cash remittances increased by 5.1 percent year-on-year to a record high of $31.42 billion.