Remittances of overseas Filipino workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) totaled $755 million in 2010. By 2013, money sent home to the Philippines rose to $1.26 billion and on to $2.54 billion in 2017, the highest amount sent in years, data from the Central Bank of the Philippines obtained by The Filipino Times showed.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which has over two million OFWs, has traditionally been the biggest source of OFW remittance with a total of $1.54 billion in 2010. Total OFW remittance for that year in the Middle East was $2.96 billion.
Remittances from KSA picked at $2.84 billion in 2015 before gradually declining to $2.23 billion last year with the onset of the government’s Saudization program that has cost OFW jobs.
In 2017, the UAE outpaced KSA for the first time with total OFW remittance of $2.54 billion as against the latter’s $2.50 billion.
Comparing January to April 2018 remittance with the same months this year, meantime, would show a -25 percent decline in OFW remittance from the UAE – or from $734 million to $547 million.
