Remittances from overseas Filipinos in April grew by 3.1 percent to $2.86 billion from $2.77 billion in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

Remittances from workers with contracts of one year or longer rose to $2.16 billion from $2.10 billion year-on-year.

Meanwhile, remittances of workers with contracts of less than a year grew to about $620 million from $600 million.

Out of all remittances, cash remittances  sent through banks increased to $2.56 billion from $2.48 billion.

Bulk from land-based workers

Most of the cash remittances came from land-based workers with $2 billion. The remaining $560 million was sent by sea-based workers.

From January to April, personal remittances of overseas Filipinos reached $12.01 billion or 2.8 percent higher than the $11.68 billion recorded in the same period of 2023.

Major country sources of remittances for the cumulative period were the United States with 41.1 percent share, Singapore with 7 percent, and Saudi Arabia with 6 percent.

The growth in April remittances coincided with the consistent higher local inflation at 3.8 percent during that month from 2.8 percent in January.

“The single-digit or modest growth in remittances came as families back home still need to cope up with relatively higher inflation locally,” Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said.