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Friday, March 29, 2024

BSP: September remittances rose by 6.3% to $2.4b

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Money sent home by Filipinos working overseas in September this year rose 6.3 percent to $2.4 billion from $2.23 billion a year ago, despite global headwinds and the threat of a worldwide slowdown in economic activity.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement Friday the figure brought cash remittances in the first nine months to $22.2 billion, up 4.2 percent from $21.3 billion a year ago.

“By type of worker, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 3.2 percent to $17.3 billion, and 8 percent to $4.9 billion, respectively,” the BSP said.

By country source, the United States registered the highest share of total remittances during the January-to-September period 37.5 percent. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Japan, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait.

The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.3 percent of total cash remittances during the period.

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Personal remittances, which include non-cash items, also increased 6.3 percent in September to $2.64 billion from $2.49 billion a year ago. The amount brought personal remittances in the first nine months to $24.64 billion, up 3.9 percent from $23.7 billion a year ago.

“Growth in personal remittances during the nine-month period was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew to $18.8 billion from $18.2 billion in the same period last year,” the BSP said.

Remittance inflows from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed higher at $5.3 billion this year compared to $4.9 billion a year ago.

ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicholas Mapa said remittance flows provided a steady dose of peso purchasing power once converted by recipients and were expected to help drive the fourth-quarter growth print closer to the 6.7 percent fighting target of the national government.

“… Remittances have been able to provide the Philippines a stable source of foreign currency to shore up dollar liquidity and in turn boost peso purchasing power to help drive the engines of domestic consumption,” Mapa said.

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