OFW remittances up in May – BSP

By Mayvelin U. Caraballo, Manila Times

July 16, 2022

THE amount of money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) increased to its highest level in two months in May, according to data released on Friday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Personal remittances, or cash or kind transfers between families, reached $2.70 billion in the fifth month of 2022, up 1.27 percent from $2.67 billion in April and 1.99 percent from $2.65 billion in May 2021. Since the $2.88 billion sent in March of this year, this was the most OFs ever sent.

The expansion over a year ago in May was related to remittances from land-based employees with contracts lasting one year or more, as well as from sea- and land-based employees with short-term contracts.

The total amount of remittances for the first five months of the year was $14.02 billion, a pickup of 2.5 percent from $13.68 billion from January to May 2021, according to the latest numbers.

Cash remittances, meanwhile, totaled $2.42 billion in May, accelerating 1.25 percent from the month before and 1.80 percent from $2.38 billion a year earlier.

The central bank said the year-on-year expansion in April "attributed to remittances from land-based workers on one year or longer contracts, and from sea- and land-based workers on short-term contracts."

From January to May 2022, cash remittances saw an uptick of 2.5 percent to $12.59 billion from $12.28 billion in the previous year.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar and Singapore, the BSP pointed out, contributed significantly to the growth in remittances in the first five months of 2022.

The Bangko Sentral kept its outlook of a 4-percent rise in cash remittances this year, noting the sector's long-term growth trend, expanding deployment as a result of employers' renewed interest in hiring OFWs and rising usage of digital financial services among OFs and their dependents.