Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) registered a new record high in December 2018, according to the latest statistics from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained as one of the top sources of remittance inflow to the Philippines.
BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said that personal remittances from OFWs hit USD3.2 billion in December 2018 bringing the year-end total to USD32.2 billion, the highest annual level to date.
By country source, the bulk of cash remittances for the year came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong.
The growth in personal remittances during the year was driven by remittance inflows from land-based OFWs with work contracts of one year or more and remittances from both sea-based and land-based OFsW with work contracts of less than one year, which rose annually by 2.8 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.
Personal remittances is a major driver of domestic consumption and, in 2018, it accounted for 9.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 8.1 percent of the gross national income (GNI).
Similarly, cash remittances in December 2018 grew markedly by 3.9 percent year-on-year to reach an all-time high of USD2.8 billion.
Full year cash remittances registered a 3.1 percent growth to reach USD28.9 billion. The growth in cash remittances was supported by the transfers from both land-based and sea-based OFWs, which grew by 2.8 percent and 4.6 percent from last year’s levels, respectively.
