Remittances hit $3.079B in October

Remittances from overseas Filipinos increased for the second straight month in October, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed.

Cash remittances or money transfers through banks or formal channels for the month stood at $3.079 billion, up from $3.009 billion in September, and 2.7% higher than the $2.998 billion the same month in 2023.

Inflows from land-based workers increased by 3.2% to $2.48 billion from $2.40 billion the previous year, while those from sea-based workers grew by 0.6% to $0.6 billion.

This brought the year-to-date cash remittances up by 3.0% to $28.304 billion from $27.492 billion in the comparable period of 2023.

“The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates contributed mainly to the increase in remittances,” the central bank said in a statement.

The United States accounted for 41.2% of the inflows for the 10-month period, followed by Singapore with 7.1%, Saudi Arabia with 6.2%, Japan with 4.9%, the United Kingdom with 4.8%, the United Arab Emirates with 4.3%, Canada with 3.5%, Qatar and Taiwan with 2.8% each, and South Korea with 2.5%.

Personal remittances or the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels, came in at $3.415 billion in October. This is higher than the $3.336 billion in September, and 2.7% more than the $3.327 billion the same month last year.

“The expansion was seen in remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers,” the BSP said.

Year-to-date personal remittances came in at $31.487 billion, up by 3.0% from $30.569 billion in the first 10 months of 2023.—AOL, GMA Integrated News