The remittances of overseas Filipinos have risen 3.4 percent higher in the first 11 months this year to $32.6 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.
Such remittances account for roughly 10 percent of local output measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Philippines and help fuel domestic consumption activities.
In November alone, the remittances totaled $2.93 billion or 5.8 percent higher than only $2.77 billion posted a year ago.
“The increase in personal remittances in November 2022 was due to higher remittances sent by 1) land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and 2) sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year,” the BSP reported.
This developed against a background in which the World Bank project the remittances to hit higher to around $38 billion in 2022 from $36.7 billion.
Latest data show the full-year aggregate from the money sent home by millions of overseas Filipinos around the world could fall short of the World Bank projection.
World Bank and other analysts have noted that remittances are often countercyclical in that they prove resilient against economic downturn conditions and continue to grow and defy trends rather than fold up and fold.
For instance, the World Bank said remittances to the Philippines in 2022 were to continue growing on account of benefits to be derived from agreements with destination countries like Saudi Arabia for improved treatment of overseas Filipino workers.
“Of the personal remittances from overseas Filipinos, cash remittances coursed through banks reached $2.64 billion in November 2022, higher by 5.7 percent than the $2.50 billion registered in the same month in 2021. The expansion in cash remittances in November 2022 was due to the growth in receipts from land- and sea-based workers,” the BSP said.
On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances coursed through banks from January to November 2022 amounted to $29.38 billion, 3.3 percent higher than the year-ago level of $28.43 billion.
The growth in cash remittances from the United States (US), Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Qatar contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January-November 2022.
Meanwhile, the US posted the highest share of overall remittances in the first eleven months of 2022, followed by Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
