Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) in March reached $2.888 billion, 3.1 percent higher than the $2.801 billion posted in the same month last year.

This resulted in the growth of the cumulative personal remittances by 2.3 percent to $8.646 billion in the first quarter from $8.454 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2021.

The increase in personal remittances in March was due to remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 3.7 percent to $2.195 billion from $2.116 billion in the same month last year, and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which increased by 1.4 percent to $625 million from $616 million a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks grew by 3.2 percent to $2.594 billion in March from $2.514 billion registered in the same month in 2021.

The expansion in cash remittances was due to the growth in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which increased by 3.7 percent (to $2.021 billion from $1.948 billion) and 1.3 percent (to $573 million from $566 million), respectively.

On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances amounted to $7.771 billion in the first quarter of 2022, higher by 2.4 percent than the year-ago level of $7.593 billion.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia contributed largely to the increase in remittances in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 41.5 percent in the first quarter, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and Malaysia.

The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 79.1 percent of total cash remittances during the period. BSP