Photo from Mediamerge Corporation BSP Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OF) increased by 12.9% year-on-year to reach $2.6 billion in April 2018. On a cumulative basis, personal remittances for the first four months of the year totaled $10.4 billion, four percent higher than the level recorded in the comparable period in 2017, BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. announced on Tuesday.

The continued growth in personal remittances during the first four months of 2018 was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which aggregated to $8.1 billion, and compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, which reached $2.1 billion.

Cash remittances from OF coursed through banks posted a 12.7% year-on-year growth (at $2.3 billion) in April 2018. Remittances sent by land-based workers (at $1.8 billion) and sea-based workers (at $0.5 billion) increased by 15.1% and 4.8 percent, respectively, compared to the levels posted in the same month a year ago.

The primary contributors to the growth in remittances during the month are the United States (US) with 4.2 percentage points contribution to the 12.7 aggregated growth, Canada (1.9 percentage points) and Singapore (1.0 percentage points).

The increase in the cash remittances in April 2018 brought the cumulative cash remittances for the first four months of the year to $9.4 billion, higher by 3.5 percent year-on-year. By country source, the bulk of cash remittances during the period came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Qatar and Kuwait. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for almost 80% of total cash transfers.