MANILA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances of overseas Filipinos (OFs) totaled 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in September 2019, 6.3 percent higher than the 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in September 2018, the Philippines' central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), said on Friday.
"This brings personal remittances for the first nine months of 2019 to 24.6 billion U.S. dollars, or 3.9 percent higher than last year's level of 23.7 billion U.S. dollars," the central bank said.
According to the BSP, growth in personal remittances during the nine-month period was driven by steady remittance inflows from land-based Overseas Filipino (OF) workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew to 18.8 billion U.S. dollars from 18.2 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year.
The BSP said remittance inflows from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts also contributed higher at 5.3 billion U.S. dollars this year compared to 4.9 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.
Similarly, the BSP said cash remittances coursed through banks by OF workers with work contracts of less than one year rose to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in September 2019 from 2.2 billion U.S. dollars last year.
"This drove cash remittances higher in the first nine months of this year to 22.2 billion U.S. dollars from 21.3 billion U.S. dollars recorded in the same period last year," the BSP said.
By type of worker, the BSP said cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers increased by 3.2 percent to 17.3 billion U.S. dollars, and 8 percent to 4.9 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.
The BSP said the U.S. registered the highest share of total remittances during the period January to September 2019 at 37.5 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, China's Hong Kong, Germany and Kuwait.
The combined remittances from these countries and regions accounted for 78.3 percent of total cash remittances during the period, the BSP said.
The government estimates the number of overseas Filipino workers at 12 million, accounting for about one-tenth of the country's population.
