Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) dropped slightly by 0.3 per cent year-in-year to $3.205 billion in December 2020 from $3.216 billion in December 2019, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The slight decrease was attributed to the 0.7 per cent decrease in remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to $2.494 billion from $2.512 billion recorded in December 2019.
Meanwhile, remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose slightly by 0.8 per cent to $647 million in December 2020 from $642 million in December 2019.
The full-year 2020 personal remittances from OFs reached U$33.194 billion, lower by 0.8 per cent than the $33.467 billion recorded in 2019.
Nonetheless, personal remittances remained a major source of the country’s foreign exchange inflows, with the 2020 level representing 9.2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 8.5 per cent of the gross national income (GNI).
Similarly, OFs’ cash remittances coursed through the banks fell slightly by 0.4 per cent to $2.89 billion in December 2020 from $2.902 billion in December 2019.
Remittances from Land-based Workers Drop
In particular, cash remittances from land-based workers fell by 0.7 per cent to $2.297 billion, while that of sea-based workers increased by 0.8 per cent to $593.2 million.
The full-year OFs’ cash remittances amounted to $29.903 billion, lower by 0.8 per cent than the $30.133 billion registered in 2019. The actual annual decline in 2020 was, however, lower than the earlier forecast contraction of 2 per cent for the year.
By country source, cash remittances from Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, and Kuwait declined, while those from the United States (US), Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, South Korea, and Taiwan increased.
The US posted the highest share of the total remittances at 39.9 per cent, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the UK, the UAE, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, and South Korea. The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.6 per cent of the total cash remittances. – BusinessNews.ph
