By Lawrence Agcaoili (The
Philippine Star) | Updated February 16, 2017 - 12:00am
“Cash remittances in 2016 continued to
increase on the back of improving global economic conditions,” BSP Deputy
Governor Diwa Guinigundo said. File
photo
MANILA, Philippines - Remittances
from overseas Filipino workers went up by five percent to a new record high of
$26.9 billion last year from $25.61 billion in 2015, the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.
“Cash remittances in 2016 continued to
increase on the back of improving global economic conditions,” BSP Deputy
Governor Diwa Guinigundo said.
The five percent growth
in cash remittances was also faster than the
four percent growth target of the
BSP.
Remittances from
land-based Filipino workers went up by 7.6
percent to $21.3 billion while money sent home by sea-based workers
declined 3.8 percent to $5.6 billion
due to stiffer competition in the supply of seafarers particularly from East
Asia and Eastern Europe.
Guinigundo said remittances
from the Middle East went up more
than 12
percent last year due to higher
inflows from Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and
the United Arab Emirates.
Remittances from
Filipinos based in Asia rose 7.4 percent, buoyed by transfers originating from
Singapore, Japan, China, and Taiwan.
According to Guinigundo,
money sent by Filipinos from the Americas expanded 3.8 percent, fueled by the
6.2 percent rise in remittances from the US.
Guinigundo said the increases
were enough to offset the 8.4 percent decline in the amount of money sent home
by Filipinos from Europe particularly the United Kingdom, Italy, and the
Netherlands.
The pound sterling
weakened against the dollar after the UK decided to leave the European Union
through a referendum last June 23.
Data released by the BSP
showed about 80 percent of the total remittances last year came from the US,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan,
Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Germany.
For December alone, remittances climbed 3.6
percent to a new monthly record of $2.56 billion from the previous month high
of $2.47 billion recorded in December 2015.
Major source of
remittances last December were the US, Qatar, and Japan. Remittances from the
over 10 million Filipinos deployed abroad account for about 9.8 percent of the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
On the other hand,
personal remittances increased 4.9 percent to a new record high of $29.71
billion last year from $28.31 billion in 2015. For December alone, personal remittances
increased 3.6 percent to $2.82 billion
from $2.73 billion in the same month in 2015.
Personal remittance is
computed as the sum of gross earnings of overseas Filipino workers with work
contracts of less than one year, including all sea-based workers, less taxes,
social contributions, and transportation and travel expenditures in their host
countries.
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