Remittances up 3% to $2.4B in November – Bangko Sentral

Overseas Filipinos transferred more money back to the Philippines in November 2015, registering a 3-percent growth, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday.

BSP data shows that personal remittances totaled $2.4 billion November.

"The continued deployment of skilled OF workers remained a key driver of the growth in remittance inflows," the BSP said.

A contributing factor is the presence of banks and non-bank remittance service providers in foreign countries.

These "provided support to the steady stream of remittance inflows during the period," the BSP said.

The amount of money transfers in the 11th month of 2015 brought the January to November remittances to $25.2 billion.

"The steady growth in personal remittances was supported by the sustained increase of remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year," the central bank said in an emailed statement.

On the other hand, cash remittances increased by 3.2 percent to $2.2 billion in November, pushing the year-to-date total to $22.8 billion – up 3.6 percent year-on-year.

Cash remittances are transfers that are specifically coursed through banks, while personal remittances are the sum of transfers in cash or in kind mostly through informal channels.

"Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers amounted $17.6 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively," the BSP said.

The bulk of cash transfers came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Hong Kong which accounted cumulatively for 79 percent of the total cash remittances.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed the total job orders in January to November reached 771,635 – with 44 percent already processed.

The job orders were from the service, production, and professional, technical and related sectors in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. – Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VS, GMA News