Remittances reach record high in 2018

Personal remittances from Filipinos abroad rose to a record high in 2018, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday showed.

In December 2018 alone, personal remittances registered a new record of $3.157 billion, up 3.6 percent from $3.046 billion.

Cash remittances, or money transfers coursed through banks, reached $2.849 billion, up 3.9 percent from $2.741 billion year-on-year.

The BSP said countries that contributed most to remittances were the US and Canada.

Personal remittances, or the sum of transfers in cash or in kind, rose by 3 percent to $32.213 billion for whole of 2018 from $31.288 billion in 2017.

This is the highest annual level for personal remittances to date, BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said.

“The growth in personal remittances during the year was driven by remittance inflows from land-based overseas Filipinos (OFs) with work contracts of one year or more and remittances from both sea-based and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one year, which rose annually by 2.8 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively,” he said.

“Personal remittances are a major driver of domestic consumption and, in 2018, it accounted for 9.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 8.1 percent of the gross national income (GNI),” Espenilla added.

Cash remittances registered a 3.1 percent growth to reach $28.9 billion full year.

“The growth in cash remittances was supported by transfers from both land-based and sea-based OF workers, which grew by 2.8 percent and 4.6 percent from last year’s levels, respectively,” Espenilla said.

Cash remittances in 2018 remained strong amid political uncertainties across the globe, the BSP chief noted.

“This is evident in Asia, the Americas, and Europe, which grew annually by 12.3 percent, 9.7 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively,” he said.

"The growth in these regions made up for the 15.3 percent decrease in remittances from the Middle East (partly due to the continued repatriation program of the government),” he added.

Bulk of cash remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong.

Cash remittances from these countries accounted for almost 79 percent of total cash remittances, according to the BSP. —VDS, GMA News