Remittances from Filipinos abroad reach 2.9 bln USD in July 2019

Source: Xinhua | 2019-09-17

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) totaled 2.9 billion U.S. dollars in July 2019, 7.2 percent higher than the 2.7 billion U.S. dollars recorded in July 2018, the country's central bank said on Monday.
On a cumulative basis, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or the central bank of the Philippines said personal remittances for the period January to July 2019 increased by 3.6 percent to 19.1 billion U.S. dollars from last years' level of 18.5 billion U.S. dollars.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the steady growth in personal remittances during the first seven months of 2019 drew support from the remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which aggregated to 14.6 billion U.S. dollars from 14.2 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year.
The BSP said inflows from the compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed to this growth and totaled 4.1 billion U.S. dollars from 3.8 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.
By country and region source, the BSP said the United States registered the highest share of overall remittances for January to July 2019 at 36.8 percent.
It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Britain, Japan, Canada, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Germany and Kuwait.
The Philippine government estimates the number of overseas Filipino workers at 12 million, accounting for more than one-tenth of the country's population. In 2018, personal remittances from overseas Filipinos grew 3.1 percent to 28.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Overseas Filipinos remittances are one of the largest sources of foreign exchange income in the Philippines.