Cash remittances sent through the banking system rose steadily by 2.8 percent year-on-year to $27.492 billion as of end-October from $26.736 billion same period in 2022, based on central bank data.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday, Dec. 15, that for the month of October, cash remittances increased three percent to $2.998 billion from the same month last year of $2.911 billion.

As for personal remittances which include fund transfers not transacted via banking networks, this went up by 2.9 percent year-on-year to $30.569 billion as of end-October from $29.718 billion last year.

Personal remittances are computed as the sum of an overseas Filipino’s net compensation and includes personal transfers and capital transfers between households.

For the month of October only, personal remittances increased 3.1 percent to $3.327 billion from $3.227 billion.

For the first 10 months, land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more transferred personal remittances of $23.74 billion, up three percent year-on-year or from $23.05 billion. Sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year sent home $6.14 billion, up 2.2 percent from $6.01 billion.

Meanwhile, on a year-to-date basis, cash remittances by land-based workers totaled $21.88 billion as of end-October, it rose by 3.1 percent from $21.23 billion same time last year. Sea-based workers also transferred $5.61 billion, up 1.8 percent from $5.51 billion.

The BSP said the growth in cash remittances were mainly contributed by transfers from the US, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

“In terms of the countries where these remittances originate, the US had the highest share of overall remittances during the period, followed by Singapore, and Saudi Arabia,” said the BSP. Since there are limitations on the remittance data by source, the US usually emerges as a top source of remittances because most correspondent banks used by remittance centers are based in the US.

For the January to October period, about 41.5 percent of remittances came from Filipinos based in the US. About seven percent were remitted from Singapore; six percent from Saudi Arabia; five percent from Japan; and 4.8 percent from the United Kingdom.

The BSP also recorded remittances from the United Arab Emirates which accounted for 4.1 percent; Canada with 3.6 percent; Qatar with 2.8 percent; Taiwan with 2.7 percent; and South Korea with 2.5 percent.

The BSP records both cash remittances and personal remittances but they base its projection for remittances on the cash remittances data. For 2023 and 2024, the BSP expects remittances to grow by three percent year-on-year.