Money sent home by millions of overseas Filipinos in March proved 3 percent higher to $2.97 billion from only $2.89 billion last year and allowed the three-month personal remittances to rise 3 percent as well to $8.91 billion from only $8.65 billion.
Of this aggregate, cash remittances sent through banks totaled $2.67 billion, up 3 percent from $2.59 billion the month before.
The remittances account for around 9 percent of local output measured as the gross domestic product, helping fuel domestic consumption that has made the economy resilient against economic downturns.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the higher volume of foreign earnings of overseas Filipinos were sent home by land- and sea-based workers. The bulk or 41.4 percent of remittances were from the US and 20.9 percent from other jurisdictions. The BSP said 7.3 percent were from Singapore, 5.8 percent from Saudi Arabia, 5.1 percent from Japan and 4.4 percent from the United Kingdom.
Personal remittances last year aggregated $36.14 billion, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier.
The forecast is for such remittances to expand another 4 percent this year.
