FILIPINO migrant workers are starting to make up for the decline in their remittances at the peak of the pandemic, as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a strong surge of cash sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) back home in April.
The BSP said cash remittances grew by 12.7 percent in April to reach $2.3 billion during the month. This is the strongest year-on-year growth in remittances in almost five years.
Cash remittances expanded, following the increase in receipts from land-based workers by 15.2 percent to $1.779 billion and sea-based workers by 4.9 percent to $526 million.
The strong April remittance growth pushed the total money sent by Filipino migrant workers
in the first four months of the year to $9.9 billion. This is 4.8 percent higher than the $9.4-billion remittance inflows to the country in the same period last year.
The January to April remittance level in 2021 also exceeded the pre-pandemic cash remittance flows. In 2019, Filipino migrant workers sent $9.7 billion back home.
The growth in cash remittances for the first four months of the year came largely from higher remittances from the United States (US), Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.
In terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 40.3 percent for the first four months, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar and Taiwan.
The combined remittances from these top 10 countries accounted for 78.1 percent of total cash remittances.
In the coming months, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) economist Michael Ricafort said remittances will likely continue to grow.
“OFW remittances could still continue to grow in the coming months, especially amid the continued much lower base until May 2021 and the need to send more remittances to OFW families/dependents to better cope/weather the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdowns especially since the latter part of March 2021 as well as better deal with higher inflation/prices in recent months,” Ricafort said.
“OFW remittances could also continue to grow in the coming months amid the faster economic recovery in major host countries amid massive vaccination that reduced new Covid-19 cases and supported better economic conditions that fundamentally entail more job opportunities/employment for OFWs,” he added.