Remittances rebound in May

Remittances from overseas Filipinos posted a slight rebound in May following the 11-month low recorded in the previous month, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed.

Cash remittances or money transfers through banks or formal channels stood at $2.583 billion in May, up from $2.562 billion in April, and 3.6% higher than the $2.494 billion the same month in 2023.

Inflows from land-based workers stood at $2.06 billion, while the remaining $0.52 billion came from sea-based workers.

This brought the year-to-date cash remittances up 3.0% to $13.365 billion from $12.981 billion in the comparable period of the previous year.

“The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore contributed mainly to the increase in remittances in January-May 2024,” the central bank said in an accompanying statement.

The United States accounted for 40.9% of total remittances for the five-month period, followed by Singapore with 7.2%, Saudi Arabia with 6.1%, Japan with 5.1%, the United Kingdom with 4.7%, the United Arab Emirates with 4.0%, Canada with 3.4%, South Korea with 2.8%, Qatar with 2.8%, and Taiwan with 2.7%.

Personal remittances—the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels—came in at $2.884 billion, reflecting growth from $2.859 billion in April and 3.7% higher than the $2.782 billion in May 2023.

“The increase in personal remittances in May 2024 was due to remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year,” the BSP said.

Year-to-date personal remittances were recorded at $14.894 billion from $14.459 billion.

“For the coming months, single-digit/modest growth in OFW remittances could still continue as OFW families/dependents still need to cope up with relatively higher prices/inflation locally that would require the sending of more remittances as well as some normalization of spending by consumers/households,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort said in a separate commentary.

Inflation clocked in at 3.9% in May, which was then the fastest in six months since the 4.1% in November 2023. It has since eased to 3.7% in June. — BM, GMA Integrated News