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Keisha Ta-Asan - The Philippine Star
March 18, 2025 | 12:00am
Dollars being counted in a foreign currency exchange.
STAR / KJ Rosales, file
MANILA, Philippines — Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) grew by 2.9 percent to $3.24 billion in January from $3.15 billion in the same month last year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The latest figure was 13 percent lower than the monthly record high of $3.73 billion in December last year. However, the growth pace in January was faster than the 2.7-percent expansion a year ago.
“The slowdown of remittances is expected as the holiday season comes to a close. Remittances typically surge during the Christmas season as families celebrate the holidays,” Reinielle Matt Erece, an economist from Oikonomia Advisory and Research Inc., said.
Personal remittances are the sum of net compensation of employees, personal transfers and capital transfers between households. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from non-resident households.
Likewise, cash remittances coursed through banks went up by 2.9 percent to $2.92 billion in January from $2.84 billion a year ago. The amount, however, was 15.8 percent lower than the monthly record high of $3.38 billion recorded in December last year.
“The growth in cash remittances from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) mainly contributed to the increase in remittances in January 2025,” the central bank said.
The US emerged as the major source of remittances with a share of 41.2 percent, followed by Singapore’s 7.5 percent, Saudi Arabia’s 6.6 percent, Japan’s 5.7 percent, United Kingdom’s 4.7 percent, UAE’s 3.5 percent, Canada’s 3.1 percent, Taiwan’s 2.8 percent, Qatar’s 2.8 percent and Malaysia’s 2.4 percent.
Remittances refer to the money sent by individuals working or living abroad back to their home country. These inflows contribute significantly to the economy’s balance of payments, which record all economic transactions between a country and the rest of the world.
According to Erece, remittances might slow down as OFWs try to mitigate the risks of higher living costs abroad if global economic uncertainty persists this year due to trade wars and geopolitical tensions.
Another factor to monitor is the foreign exchange rate.
Erece said that if the US Federal Reserve becomes more cautious of their own monetary policy, the peso may slightly depreciate against the dollar.
“This can entice OFWs to remit their earnings to the country amid the elevated peso value of the dollar. We may have to monitor these factors to see the outlook of remittances this year,” he added.
Personal remittances reached an all-time high of $38.34 billion in 2024 from $37.21 billion in 2023, of which cash remittances coursed through banks stood at a record high of $34.49 billion from $33.49 billion a year ago.
For 2025, the BSP sees cash remittances climbing by three percent to $35.5 billion.
