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Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in September rose 9.1 percent to $ 2.888 billion compared to $ 2.648 billion recorded a year earlier, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed. (BSP) on Monday.
In a statement, the central bank said that personal remittances (personal transfers in cash or in kind and capital transfers between households) from land workers with employment contracts of one year or more reached $ 2.205 billion in the period, a 10 , 2 percent more than the $ 2,001 billion registered in September 2019.
Remittances from workers at sea and workers on land with employment contracts of less than one year also increased by 6.5 percent to $ 622 million in September compared to $ 584 million previously.
Cash remittances, which only count money passing through banks, reached $ 2.601 billion in September, an increase of 9.3 percent from $ 2.379 billion in the same month last year.
For the January-September period, BSP said that personal remittances amounted to $ 24.302 billion, while cash remittances reached $ 21.886 billion.
By country source, cash remittances from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, Kuwait and the United Kingdom contracted in the first nine months, while those from the United States, Singapore, Qatar, Hong Kong and Taiwan expanded.
The United States had the largest share of total OFW remittances from January to September with 40.1 percent. It was followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar and Taiwan.
Michael L. Ricafort, head of RCBC’s economic and industrial research division and corporate planning group, in an emailed statement said that OFW remittances could increase further in the last quarter of 2020, but said that this would depend on the economic recovery of countries.
“Going forward, any further recovery in OFW remittances in the coming months will also largely depend / be a function of the further recovery of the economies of major recipient countries around the world from the Covid lockdowns. coronavirus 2019) … for some OFWs to be able to return to work, as well as the pace of restoration / recovery of jobs lost by some negatively affected OFWs in the same or different industry / host country, including repatriated OFWs, especially those that come from highly affected industries such as tourism / travel – related industries, ”explained Ricafort.
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