Money sent home by overseas Filipinos (OFs) climbed to $2.87 billion in March, rebounding from the nine-month low of $2.79 billion recorded in February, closing the first quarter with larger inflows.

The latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released on Friday, May 15, showed that remittances in March increased 2.3 percent compared to the $2.81 billion recorded in March last year.

During the month, land-based workers contributed $2.26 billion to the total, a 2.2 percent year-on-year increase, while sea-based workers contributed $610 million, increasing by 2.5 percent.

SM Investments Corp. Group economist Robert Dan Roces told Manila Bulletin that overseas employment remained insulated in March even as the Middle East war escalated further during the month.

“At least based on the March numbers, remittances still look resilient despite the Middle East tensions,” Roces said.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort also said remittances were resilient in March, likening the trend to the pandemic era when OFs “[needed] to send more to their families to better cope with higher prices and slower economic conditions.”

“OFW employment tends to be diversified across sectors and countries, so the impact was not immediately felt,” Roces further said, but he dropped a caution that hiring, construction activity, and overall business conditions in the region could turn weak if the war is prolonged.

It bears noting, however, that the annual growth rate in March slowed to its weakest pace in nearly three years since June 2023’s 2.1 percent growth rate.

Reyes Tacandong & Co. senior adviser Jonathan Ravelas also told Manila Bulletin remittance growth is “clearly slowing,” but he asserted that this should be viewed as normalization rather than a warning.

“You’re seeing a mix of factors at play—cooling global labor markets, higher base effects, and rising living costs abroad, which are limiting how much OFWs can send home,” Ravelas said. “There’s also a structural shift toward digital and non-cash channels, so some flows may not be fully captured in the data.”

Looking ahead, Ravelas said he expects growth to remain steady but modest at around three percent, with possible gains in the second half of the year driven by seasonal spending and easing global inflation.

“Remittances remain a critical anchor for Philippine consumption—but they’re no longer a high-growth driver,” Ravelas noted. “If we want faster economic expansion, the heavy lifting will have to come from investment and stronger domestic demand.”

Personal remittances—a broader category including informal channels and remittances in kind—reached $3.2 billion in March, up 2.3 percent from $3.13 billion in the same month last year.

From January to March, cash remittances increased by 2.8 percent to $8.68 billion from $8.44 billion in the same period last year. This first-quarter figure follows a record-breaking performance in 2025, when annual cash inflows reached an all-time high of $35.63 billion.

During the first quarter, the United States (US) remained the primary source of cash remittances, accounting for 39.9 percent of the total. This was followed by Singapore at 7.6 percent, Saudi Arabia at 6.3 percent, Japan at five percent, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 4.7 percent.

Cumulative personal remittances for the first quarter reached $9.66 billion, a 2.8 percent increase over the $9.40 billion recorded in the same period in 2025.

According to the BSP, the US’s dominance as a source is partly due to the common practice of remittance centers abroad coursing funds through US-based correspondent banks.

Additionally, several money couriers are headquartered in the US, leading banks to attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source rather than the actual country where the worker is located.

Cash remittances, which serve as a growth engine, accounted for 7.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter.

It accounted for 7.3 percent of GDP in 2025, a slight decline from 7.5 percent in 2024 and 7.7 percent in 2023.

For 2026, the BSP forecasts cash remittances to reach $36.7 billion, representing a three percent growth rate from the actual 2025 figure. However, this is seen easing from the actual growth seen last year at 3.3 percent.