Remittances reach six-month low in November 2025

Remittances from overseas Filipinos fell to a six-month low in November 2025, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday showed.

Cash remittances or money transfers coursed through banks or formal channels for the month stood at $2.910 billion, up 0.6% from $2.808 billion in the same month in 2024, but lower than the $3.171 billion in October. It is also the lowest in six months since cash remittances came in at $2.658 billion in May 2025.

Land-based workers sent in $2.30 billion, while sea-based workers remitted $0.61 billion.

This brought year-to-date cash remittances to $32.111 billion, or 3.2% higher than the $31.113 billion in the comparable period of 2024.

The United States remained the top source of inflows with 40.0%, followed by Singapore with 7.1%, Saudi Arabia with 6.4%, Japan with 5.0%, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates with 4.6% each, Canada with 3.5%, Qatar with 2.9%, Taiwan with 2.8%, and South Korea with 2.4%.

The BSP noted, however, that remittances coursed through money couriers cannot be disaggregated by actual country source, and these are lodged under the country where the main offices are located, which is in the United States in many cases.

Personal remittances—the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels—came in at $3.235 billion, up 3.6% from $3.121 billion in November 2024, bringing the year-to-date level up 3.2% to $35.727 billion. —VBL, GMA Integrated News