Remittances recover after three months of continuous decline

Personal remittances in June recover after three straight months of decline, hits US$15.6 billion in H1

MANILA – The reduction in cash remittances from January to June this year was reduced to 4.2 percent from a cumulative contraction of 6.4% in May 2020.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, a marked 7.6 percent growth was seen in personal remittances from overseas Filipinos last June 2020 which increased to US$2.737 billion from the US$2.545 billion in June 2019. This trend is a reversal from three consecutive months of decline from their comparable levels last year. The growth, according to the BSP, the growth was due to the 14.2% rise in remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to US$2.164 billion in June 2020 from US$1.896 billion in June 2019. Remittances from sea-based workers fell by 13.1 percent from US$593 million posted last year to US$515 million last June 2020.

Overseas Filipinos’ cash remittances that were coursed through banks rose by 7.7 percent to US$2.465 billion in June 2020 from US$2,29 bullion in June 2019 and was supported mainly by remittances from land-based workers. The drop in sea-based workers’ remittance was traced to the repatriation of many sea-based workers due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

Cash remittances from land-based workers for January to June this year continued to be lower compared to 2019 figures by 4 percent to US$10.959 billion from US$11.411 billion. Meanwhile, sea-based workers’ remittances fell by 5.2 percent to US$3.06 billion from US$3.228 billion.

Remittances from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Oman and Taiwan from January to June 2020 showed continued growth while declines were noted from overseas Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The highest share to total overseas Filipinos’ remittances at 39.7 percent the period January-June 2020 came from the United States, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar and Taiwan. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.9 percent of total cash remittances. (Melo M. Acuña)