MANILA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) for the first nine months of 2018 grew by 2.4 percent year-on-year to reach 23.7 billion U.S. dollars, the Philippine central bank said on Thursday.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipina (BSP) officer-in-charge Maria Almasara Cyd Tuano-Amador said the growth in personal remittances during the first nine months of 2018 was supported by remittance inflows from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 2.2 percent year-on-year.
Similarly, she added the growth in personal remittances was complemented by remittances from sea and land- based workers with contracts of less than one year, which rose by 3.5 percent year-on-year.
In September 2018, Amador said personal remittances rose to 2.5 billion dollars, 2 percent higher than the September 2017 level.
Likewise, Amador said cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks increased by 2.3 percent year-on-year to 2.2 billion dollars in September 2018.
This brought cash remittances for the period January-September 2018 to 21.3 billion dollars, 2.5 percent higher than the 20.8 billion dollars recorded in the comparable period last year, Amador said.
Over the nine-month period, she added cash remittances from both land-based, which reached 16.8 billion dollars, and sea-based, which hit 4.5 billion dollars, workers grew by 2.2 percent and 3.5 percent year-on-year, respectively.
By country and region source, Amador said more than 79 percent of the total cash remittances for the first nine months of 2018 came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, Britain, Qatar, Canada, Germany, and China's Hong Kong.
