Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 15) – Personal remittances expanded the mildest in three months in May, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data released Friday showed.
Filipinos abroad sent home $2.7 billion during the period, up 2% year-on-year. This annual rate is the lowest since the 1.2% pace in February, when remittances hit $2.79 billion.
May’s tally brought cumulative remittances to $14.02 billion, 2.5% up from the same five-month stretch last year.
Land-based workers with contracts lasting over a year remitted $2.09 billion during the month, 1.9% higher than in May 2021. Remittances made by seafarers and short-term land-based laborers also grew 1.4% to $540 million.
Cash remittances, or those coursed through banks, hit $2.42 billion in May. While this figure grew 1.8%, this expansion is slower than April’s, when remittances rose 3.9% to $2.39 billion.
This pushed the year-to-date tally of remittances via banks to $12.59 billion, a 2.5% annual improvement.
The central bank listed the United States as the top source of remittances from January to May, accounting for 41% of the total.
Other major sources were Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar, and Taiwan.
