From only $2.35 billion in April, overseas Filipino (OF) cash remittances ramped up to $2.47 billion in May this year, which was 6.9 percent previous, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Monday.

“On a cumulative basis, personal remittances for the first five months of the year grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year to reach $13.2 billion,” BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said in a statement.

The $2.75 billion in personal remittances during the period was driven by steady inflows from land-based OF with work contracts of one year or more, which totaled $10.2 billion, and compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts.

Likewise, cash remittances from OF coursed through banks rose by 6.9 percent year-on-year to $2.47 billion in May. In particular, cash remittances sent by land-based workers ($1.9 billion) and sea-based workers (US$0.5 billion) grew by 5.3 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.

Of the 6.9 percent cash remittance growth in May 2018, 2.6, 1.6 and 1.3 percentage points were contributed by the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore, respectively, the main contributors of the growth in cash remittances.

On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances registered a 4.2 percent increase to reach $11.8 billion. Cash remittances coming from the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), UK, Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait accounted for 78 percent of total cash remittances.