The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the UAE are among the top sources of remittances into the country during the first nine months of 2018.
According to BSP, OFWs from countries like the UAE, the United States, Saudi Arabia,, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Hong Kong make up 79 percent of the total remittances this year.
Despite this, remittances from OFWs shrank to its lowest in one year for the month of September with a total of $2.237 billion, higher than the $2.186 billion remittances from September 2017, but still the lowest in the past 12 months.
The reported remittances for September brought the total remittances for 2018 to $21.294 billion – 16.8 billion from land-based workers and $4.5 billion from sea-based workers.
OFW remittances is expected to recover in the following months as the holiday season approaches which is expected to strengthen peso by year-end.
The BSP projects remittances to grow by 4 percent on average for 2018.
