MANILA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances sent by Overseas Filipinos (OFs) reached 3 billion U.S. dollars in October 2019, a 7.7 percent increase from 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in October 2018, the the Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.
On a year-to-date basis from January to October, the BSP said remittances grew by 4.3 percent to 27.6 billion U.S. dollars, higher than last year's level of 26.5 billion U.S. dollars.
By type of worker, the BSP said personal remittances for January to October 2019 from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more grew by 3.8 percent to 21.1 billion U.S. dollars from 20.3 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year.
According to the BSP, the combined remittances of sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts also increased by 7.5 percent to 5.9 billion U.S. dollars during the period compared to 5.5 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.
Meanwhile, the BSP said cash remittances coursed through banks by OF workers with work contracts of less than one year rose by 8 percent to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in October 2019 from 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in October 2018.
By country or region source, the BSP said the United States registered the highest share to total remittances during the period January to October 2019 at 37.6 percent.
It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Britain, Canada, Germany, China's Hong Kong, and Kuwait. The combined remittances from these sources accounted for 78.4 percent of total cash remittances during the period.
The government estimates the number of overseas Filipino workers at 12 million, accounting for one-tenth of the country's population.
The BSP sees cash remittances growing by three percent this year.
In 2018, remittances grew 3.1 percent to 28.943 billion U.S. dollars from 2017's 28.060 billion U.S. dollars, a little past the BSP's three-percent growth projection.
