Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFWs) totaled $2.9 billion in August 2019, 4.2 percent higher than the $2.8 billion in August 2018.
This brings personal remittances for the first eight months of 2019 to $22 billion, up by 3.6 percent from last years’ level of $21.2 billion.
The steady growth in personal remittances during the first eight months of 2019 drew support from the remittance inflows from land-based OF workers with work contracts of one year or more, which aggregated $16.8 billion from $16.3 billion in the same period last year.
Inflows from the compensation of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed to this growth and totaled $4.7 billion from $4.4 billion a year ago.
Likewise, cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks rose to $2.6 billion in August 2019, from $2.5 billion last year, bringing cash remittances for the first eight months this year to $19.8 billion.
Cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 2.8 percent to $15.5 billion and 8.2 percent to $4.3 billion, respectively, for January-August 2019.
By country source, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances for January to August 2019 at 37 percent.
It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait.
The combined remittances from these countries accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances from January to August 2019.
