Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) registered $2.966 billion in January, higher by 2.5 percent than the $2.895 billion recorded in the same month in 2021, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday.

The increase in personal remittances in January was due to remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 2.9 percent to $2.283 billion from $2.219 billion in the same month last year, and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which increased by 1.2 percent to $617 million from $609 million a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks registered a 2.5 percent growth to $2.668 billion in January from $2.603 billion recorded in the same month last year.

The expansion in cash remittances was due to the increase in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which rose by 2.9 percent (to $2.103 billion from $2.044 billion) and 1.2 percent (to $565 million from $558 million), respectively.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Japan, and Singapore contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January.

Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 41.2 percent in January, followed by Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and Malaysia.

The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 79.6 percent of total cash remittances during the period. BSP