The growth in the amount of money sent home by Filipinos living and working abroad slowed for the second straight month in February, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Cash remittances coursed through banks grew by 2.4 percent to $2.57 billion in February from $2.51 billion in the same month last year.
This was the second straight month that remittances sent home by OFWs slowed since the 5.8 percent increased recorded in December.
According to the central bank, the expansion in cash remittances in was due to the 2.6 percent growth in receipts from land-based workers to $2.06 billion in February from $2.01 billion in the same month last year as well as the 1.6 percent rise from sea-based workers to $510 million from $500 million.
On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances coursed through banks inched up by three percent to $5.33 billion from the previous year’s $5.18 billion.
“The growth in cash remittances from the US, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Qatar contributed mainly to the increase in remittances in January – February 2023,” the BSP said.
In terms of country sources, the US posted the highest share of overall remittances at 41.6 percent, followed by Singapore with 7.3 percent, Saudi Arabia with 5.5 percent, and Japan with 5.3 percent.
As a result, personal remittances from rose by 2.4 percent to $2.86
billion in February from $2.79 billion recorded in the same month last year.
The increase was due to higher remittances sent by land-based workers
with work contracts of one year or more that went up by 2.5 percent to $2.23 billion from $2.18 billion as well as the two percent rise in sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year to $560 million from $550 million.
The expansion increased the cumulative personal remittances by three percent to $5.93 billion in the first two months of 2023 from $5.76 billion in the comparable period in 2022.
