Filipinos working in the United States, the UAE, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar played a key role as remittances posted double-digit growth in November from a year earlier, bringing the year-to-date tally above the full-year 2016 target set by the central bank.
Remittances in the first 11 months of 2016 reached $24.34 billion (Dh89.05 billion), meaning the annual flow is on track to reach the central bank’s $26.3 billion target, reported Manila Times.
“The increase in personal remittances was driven largely by the 7.8 percent expansion in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to reach $20.9 billion. This made up for the 3.6 percent decline in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, totaling $5.5 billion,” the news portal quoted the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report.
Remittances will continue to grow in 2017, although at a slower pace due to sluggish global growth and as the number of Filipino overseas workers stabilizes, an expert reportedly said.
Personal remittances surged 18.4 percent to $2.44 billion in November from $2.06 billion a year earlier, BSP data reportedly showed.
The double-digit increase also reversed a 2.8 percent year-on-year decline in October, when remittances reached only $2.32 billion.
For the first 11 months of the year, remittances totaled $26.88 billion, rising 5.1 percent from a year earlier and surpassing the BSP target of $26 billion for full-year 2016.
Cash remittances coursed through banks totaled $2.21 billion in November, up 18.5 percent from $1.87 billion in November 2015. In October, cash remittances totaled $2.09 billion, reported Manila Times.
Most of the remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Germany, the report said.
