Remittances reach 10-month high in October —BSP

Remittances rebounded to a 10-month high in October after registering a dip in the previous month, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed.

Personal remittances, or the sum of transfers in cash or in kind, rose by 7.7% to $2.969 billion in October.

This compares with $2.757 billion in the same month last year, and $2.648 billion in September 2019.

October’s remittances are the highest in 10 months since personal remittances came in at $3.157 billion in December 2018.

Cash remittances, or money transfers coursed through banks, rose by 8.0% to $2.671 billion from $2.474 billion in October 2018.

Year-to-date, personal remittances were up 4.3% at $27.612 billion while cash remittances rose by 4.6% to $24.858 billion.

In January to October, Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more grew by 3.8% to $21.1 billion from $20.3 billion in the same period last year.

The combined remittances of sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts increased by 7.5% to $5.9 billion during the period compared with $5.5 billion a year earlier.

In terms of cash remittances, land-based workers were up 3.8% at $19.4 billion and sea-based workers were up 08% at $5.4 billion.

“By country source, the US registered the highest share to total remittances during the period January to October 2019 at 37.6%,” the BSP said.

It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, and Kuwait.

“The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.4% of total cash remittances during the period,” the BSP said. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News