Remittances of foreign currency by expatriate Filipinos continue to rise as of August 2017, thanks to sustained inflows from workers with both long- and short-term employment contracts, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.
In a press statement, BSP said personal remittances of overseas Filipinos continued to rise in the eight month of this year, posting 9.4 percent growth from the same period last year to reach $2.8 billion.
This brought personal remittances for the first eight months of 2017 to $20.7 billion, higher by 6.4 percent relative to the year-ago level.
“The increase in personal remittances was driven largely by the sustained inflow of transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more at $16 billion, and remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year at $4.2 billion,” the central bank said.
Meanwhile, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose by 7.8 percent to $2.5 billion in August 2017. By country source, the primary contributors to the rise in cash remittances during the month are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, Singapore and Qatar.
For the first eight months of 2017, cash remittances reached $18.6 billion or a 5.4 percent increase compared to the level registered in the same period last year.