MANILA: Personal remittances of overseas Filipinos (OFs) from January to November 2023 climbed to USD33.6 billion, almost 3 percent higher than the USD32.6 billion in the same period in 2022, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.

In November last year alone, OF remittances increased by USD100 million to USD3 billion in the same period in November 2022.

“The growth in personal remittances during the month was driven by increased remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year,” the BSP said.

The central bank added cash remittances in November last year rose 2.8 percent to USD2.7 billion.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the remittances in the first 11 months of the year came from the United States, sharing 41.2 percent of the pie, followed by Singapore and United Kingdom, sharing 6.9 and 6 percent, respectively.

“[Overseas Filipino workers] remittances continued to grow year-on-year for all months sinc
e January 2021, despite the pandemic,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said.

“The average OFW remittances year-on-year growth since the pandemic and over the past five years has been at 2 to 3 percent, consistent with or even higher or better than the country’s population growth and demographics,” Ricafort added.

Source: Philippines News Agency