OFW remittances up 5% to $5.6B from January to February —BSP

Money sent home by Filipinos abroad grew 5% in the first two months of 2020,  data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed Friday.

Personal remittances, or the sum of transfer in cash or in-kind, was registered at $5.566 billion from January to February, up 5% from $5.302 billion in the same period last year.

Meanwhile cash remittances —money transfer coursed through banks—rose 4.6% to $5 billion from P4.8 billion year-on-year.

For the month of February alone, personal remittances amounted to $2.62 billion, up 2.6% from $2.56 billion a year earlier.

This as personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more rose to $2 billion, up 3.5% higher from $1.9 billion recorded in February 2019.

Remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year declined by 0.9% to $560 million from $570 million from a year ago.

Cash remittances in February grew 2.5% to $2.36 billion from $2.3 billion year-on-year.

By country source, the United States registered the highest share to overall remittances at 39%.

It was followed by Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Canada, Hong Kong, and Korea with a combined contribution of 79.4% of total cash remittances. —Ted Cordero/LBG, GMA News