Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 15) — Filipinos abroad sent home $3.06 billion in June, bringing total remittances for the first six months of the year to $17.08 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.
For the month alone, personal remittances grew 4.4%. The growth rate stood at 2.8% during the six-month period.
The BSP said remittances from land-based workers with contracts of over a year rose 4.8% to $2.4 billion in June. Seafarers and short-term land-based laborers sent home $600 million, up 2.6%.
Meanwhile, cash remittances or those coursed through banks amounted to $2.75 billion during the month, up 4.4% annually. This brought the first-half figure to $15.34 billion, representing a 2.9% jump.
The US accounted for over 40% of cash remittances during the six-month period. Other major sources were Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, South Korea, Qatar, and Taiwan.
“Global economic recovery prospects somewhat improved as many countries around the world also further re-opened their economies towards greater normalcy as fundamentally justified by the recent significant easing/reduction in new COVID cases since February-March 2022,” said RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort of the latest figures.
However, he cited as offsetting risk factors the Ukraine-Russia war which could slow down global economic recovery due to rising oil and commodity prices, along with higher US or global bond yields amid the Federal Reserve’s more aggressive monetary tightening.
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Ricafort said the rise in prices could have prompted more remittances to counteract its effects but these were “offset by the stronger US dollar vs. the peso in recent months that fundamentally led to a bigger peso equivalent of US dollar/foreign currency remittances sent to the country.”
The peso weakened past the ₱55-per-dollar level by end-June, then its weakest performance in over 16 years.
A few days after, it breached ₱56 before returning to the ₱55 level in late July.
