Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) posted a rebound in October and Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates share the spot with those in the United States in the top contributors of the cash remittances, as per the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report on Friday.
“The top countries that contributed to the increase in total cash remittances during the month were the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and United States (US),” the BSP said.
Personal remittances rose to $2.55 billion from $2.32 billion a year ago, up 9.7 percent and recovering from September’s five-month low of $2.44 billion.
“Personal remittances from land-based OFs with work contracts of one year or more including other household-to-household transfers posted an increase of 4.2 percent (at $19.8 billion) and those from sea-bawd and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one-year increased by 4.1 percent (at $5.3 billion) for January to October of 2017,” the central bank said.
BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said personal remittances hiked to 9.7 percent.
This is fastest growth remittances in the past seven months attributed to the bullish demand for skilled workers, said the central bank.
For the first 10 months, personal remittances including other household-to-household transfers went up 5.2 percent to $25.72 billion from a year-ago level of $24.43 billion.
On the other hand, Espenilla said cash remittances grew 8.4 percent to $2.27 billion in October from $2.1 billion in the same month last year. This was also the fastest growth since posting a double-digit expansion of 10.7 percent last March.
OFW remittances help shield the Philippines against economic uncertainties.
