Remittances up 3.2% at $2.5B in November —BSP

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos posted a slight gain in November, largely from the money transfers of land-based workers.

Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed personal remittances climbed by 3.2 percent to $2.526 billion in November 2017 from $2.448 billion a year earlier.

Personal remittances are the sum of transfers sent in cash, or in-kind, via informal channels.

Cash remittances, or money transfers coursed through banks, grew by 5.1 percent to $2.262 billion from the $2.217 billion in November 2016.

“I think one of the reasons was the upcoming Christmas season at that time and the depreciation of the peso against the dollar,” Mitzie Irene Conchada, economics professor at the De La Salle University, told GMA News Online.

In November, the Philippine peso traded against the US dollar mostly at the P50-level and even depreciated to as low as P51.330:$1 during the month.

“These encouraged OFWs and Filipinos living abroad to send more dollars,” Conchada said.

The latest figures brought the year-to-date personal remittances to $28.242 billion, and cash remittances to $25.318 billion.

“The growth in personal remittances in January to November 2017 was supported by the sustained expansion of remittances from land-based OFs with work contracts of one year or more (3.7 percent),” the BSP said in an emailed statement.

Sea-based and land-based Filipinos with work contracts of less than one year also grew by 5.1 percent, according to the BSP. —VDS, GMA News