Cash sent by migrant Filipino workers in February continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate compared to remittances the previous month.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported a 4.5-percent increase in the remittances in February, totaling $2.27 billion during the month.
The growth, while slower than the 9.7-percent expansion in January, pushed lower the overall remittance growth in the first two months this year to 7.1 percent.
Compared to the same month in 2017, however, more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) sent their money back home this year as February last year’s remittance growth averaged only 3.4 percent.
Volume totaled some $100 million less in February 2017 than in the same month this year.
February’s remittance inflow mainly came from Filipinos working in the United States, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany and Malaysia.
In particular, remittances from the US and UAE each contributed 1.2 percentage points to the 4.5-percent overall growth.
Meanwhile, cash remittances from Germany and Malaysia each shared 1 percentage point to the total growth in cash remittances.
This brings the two-month cash remittances to $4.65 billion in 2018, higher than the $4.34 billion in 2017.
Also, the BSP reported that cash remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers increased. Those land-based OFW remittances grew by 6.4 percent to hit $3.7 billion, while sea-based OFW remittances grew 9.8 percent to contribute $1 billion in the first two months of the year.
Personal remittances, meanwhile, also grew slower in February to expand by 5.4 percent and hit $2.53 billion during the month.
Personal remittances are sent home by Filipino migrant workers in cash and in kind.
In 2017 the level of OFW personal remittances equaled 10 percent of local output or the GDP and 8.3 percent of the gross national income.