Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) increased by 6.4 percent

year-on-year to $2.8 billion in March 2019 from $2.6 billion in March 2018, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Wednesday.

This brought total remittances for the first quarter to $8.1 billion, higher by 3.7 percent compared to the $7.8 billion posted in the same period last year, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno announced.

The continued growth in personal remittances during the first three

months of 2019 was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which totalled $6.2 billion, and compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, which reached S$1.7 billion.

Cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks in March 2019 amounted to $2.5 billion, up by 6.6 percent year-on-year from the $2.4 billion recorded in March 2018.

Of the 6.6 percent growth in March, 2.0, 1.7 and 1.2 percentage points were contributed by the United States (US), Singapore and the United Kingdom , respectively.

On a cumulative basis, cash remittances for the first quarter rose to $7.3 billion, 4.2 percent higher than the first quarter 2018 level of $7 billion.

This growth was buoyed by the increase in remittances from both land-based ($5.71 billion) and sea-based ($1.58 billion) workers, which rose by 2.5 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively.

By country source, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances for the period at 35.1 percent.

It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Hong Kong, and Kuwait.

Combined remittances from these countries accounted for almost 78 percent of total cash remittances from January to March. DMS