Remittances from Overseas Filipinos increase noted

Personal remittances increase for two consecutive months

MANILA – Th Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) increased for the secone consecutive month, increasing by 7.6 percent year-on-year to US$3.085 billion in July 2020 from US$2,867 billion in July 2019.

In a statement released shortly before midday, the BSP said the total remittances for the first seven months of 2020 amounted to US$18.658 billion or 2.4 percent lower than the US$19.119 billion posted a year ago.

The growth, according to the BSP, was attributed to the 12.6 percent increase in remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to US$2.467 million in July 2020 from US$2.192 billion in July 2019. Remittances from sea-based workers fell by 9.2 percent from US$613 million posted a yar ago to US$557 million in July 2020 due mainly to the repatriation of sea-based workers amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Overseas Filipinos’ cash remittances coursed through the banks rose for the second month posting an increment of 7.8 percent to US$2.783 billion in July 2020 from US$2.581 billion in July 2019. The growth was due to the 12.6 percent increase in land0nased workers remittances but was slightly tempered by the 9.2 percent decrease in sea-based remittances.

For the January-July 2020 span, the cumulative decline in cash remittances decelerated to 2.4 percent from 4.2 percent in June. Cash remittances from land-based dropped by 1.5 percent to US$13.232 billion from US$13.429 billion. Sea-based workers’ remittances fell by 5.8 percent from 2019 figures. The remittances fell by 5.8 percent to US$3.57 from US$3.789 last year.

The bulk of remittances from January to July 2020 came from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Qatar and Taiwan. Remittances from these places showed continued growth.

The decline in remittances were noted in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany, Kuwait and the United Kingdom. The highest share of the total remittances at 40.1 percent for the period January to July came from the US, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Qatar, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The total remittances from these countries resulted in 78.9 percent of the total cash remittances. (Melo M. Acuna)

Filipino workers leaving for overseas workbeefore the stringent travel and quarantine policies. (Melo M. Acuna)