By Derco Rosal
Published Jun 15, 2026 12:05 pm
Money sent home by overseas Filipinos (OFs) fell to $2.72 billion in April, dropping from the $2.87 billion recorded in March to hit its lowest level since May last year, as tighter budgets constrained cash transfers.
According to the latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released on Monday, June 15, cash remittances in April emerged as the lowest in nearly a year, since hitting $2.66 billion in May 2025. Despite the month-on-month decline, cash remittances increased by 2 percent compared to the $2.66 billion recorded in April last year.
During the month, land-based workers contributed $2.12 billion to the total, a 2.1 percent year-on-year increase, while sea-based workers brought in $590 million, up 1.9 percent. The BSP noted that cash remittances in April remained resilient “amid prevailing global economic conditions.”
Meanwhile, Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at the Union Bank of the Philippines, said the softer April inflows were due to cautious cash transfers driven by “tighter budgets” among overseas workers facing global uncertainty. Asuncion added that news about the looming signing of a peace deal between the US and Iran “could help stabilize employment prospects and support remittance flows from the region, reducing downside risks in the near term.”
“Overall, remittances should remain resilient, but growth is likely to stay modest as elevated inflation continues to constrain both senders and recipients,” Asuncion said.
For SM Investments Corp. Group economist Robert Dan Roces, the month-on-month easing could not necessarily be attributed to the Middle East conflict, as it typically points to seasonality or changes in deployment and transfers.
“One month of softer remittances is usually more about timing effects, seasonality, or fluctuations in deployment and transfers rather than a direct impact from the Middle East conflict,” Roces said, adding that it is too hasty to link a single month’s data to the war. “If anything, the bigger concern is whether a prolonged conflict starts affecting employment, incomes, or the mobility of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the region.”
Personal remittances—a broader category that includes informal channels and in-kind transfers—reached $3.04 billion during the month, up 2.1 percent from $2.97 billion in the same month last year.
From January to April, cash remittances increased by 2.6 percent to $11.40 billion from $11.11 billion in the same period last year. This year-to-date figure follows a record-breaking performance in 2025, when annual cash inflows reached an all-time high of $35.63 billion.
During the first four months of 2026, the United States (US) remained the primary source of cash remittances, accounting for 39.7 percent of the total. This was followed by Singapore at 7.3 percent, Saudi Arabia at 6.4 percent, Japan at 5.1 percent, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 4.6 percent.
Cumulative personal remittances for the first four months reached $12.70 billion, a 2.7 percent increase from the $12.37 billion recorded a year earlier.
According to the BSP, the US’s dominance as a source is partly due to the common practice of remittance centers abroad routing funds through US-based correspondent banks. Additionally, several money couriers are headquartered in the US, leading banks to attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source rather than the actual country where the worker is located.
Cash remittances, which serve as a major economic growth engine, accounted for 7.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2026. They accounted for 7.3 percent of GDP in 2025, a slight decline from 7.5 percent in 2024 and 7.7 percent in 2023.
For the full year of 2026, the BSP forecasts cash remittances to reach $36.7 billion, representing a 3 percent growth rate from the actual 2025 figure. However, this expansion is expected to ease from the
