More Filipinos found work abroad, bringing up personal remittances to the Philippines to a record-high of $37.2 billion last year, or three percent higher from $36.1 billion in 2022.

“The robust inward remittances reflected the rise in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers due to the continuous increase in demand for foreign workers in host countries,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, or BSP, said Thursday.

The full-year growth in personal remittances was boosted by a 3.9 percent increase in such funds amounting to $3.6 billion last December from $3.5 billion recorded in the same month in 2022.

This amount represented 8.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 7.7 percent of gross national income last year.

BSP data show growth in personal remittances from workers with at least one-year contracts grew by 3.9 percent year-on-year.

Short-term tour

Similarly, those with less than one-year contracts increased personal remittances by 3.5 percent.

Specifically, cash remittances sent through banks grew by 2.9 percent to $33.5 billion by the end of 2023.

Out of this, $3.3 billion was recorded in December or 3.8 percent higher than the $3.2 billion recorded in the same month in 2022.

Cash remittances from land-based workers grew by 4 percent year-on-year and 3.2 percent from sea-based workers.

The top source of all remittances was the United States with 40.9 percent share. This was followed by Singapore with 7.1 percent and Saudi Arabia with 6.2 percent.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show most or 44 percent of the 1.96 million overseas Filipino workers in 2022 engaged in elementary occupations or those that require routine tasks and physical labor. They were followed by service and sales workers with 15.5 percent.