Remittances up 6% at $2.746B in May

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) increased by 6.1 percent in May, driven mainly by steady inflows from land-based workers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

Central bank data showed personal remittances totaled $2.746 billion in May, up from $2.588 billion the same month last year.

Personal remittances are the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels.

“Personal remittances during the period were driven by steady inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which totaled $10.2 billion, and compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, which reached $2.7 billion,” the BSP said in a statement.

Cash remittances, or money transfers coursed through banks, rose by 6.9 percent to $2.469 billion.

The latest numbers brought personal remittances to $13.172 billion in the five months to May, up 4.4 percent from $12.613 billion a year earlier.

Cash remittances increased by 4.2 percent to $11.822 billion from $11.346 billion.

“Cash remittances coming from the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, UK, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong, Germany, and Kuwait accounted for about 78 percent of total cash remittances,” the BSP said. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News