By Lee C. Chipongian

Cash remittances for the first seven months increased by three percent year-on-year to $16.6 billion from $16.09 billion, said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr.

Cash remittances or bank-transferred funds sent by overseas Filipinos for the month of July reached $2.4 billion which was 5.2 percent more than what was reported same time last year of $2.28 billion.

The BSP said cash remittances sent by land-based workers went up by 4.5 percent in July to $1.9 billion. Sea-based workers, in the meantime, remitted $511 million which was 7.8 percent higher year-on-year.

For the seven-month period, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers totaled $13.1 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively. “More than 79 percent of the total cash remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, UK, Qatar, Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong,” said the BSP.

As for personal remittances, this also increased by three percent year-on-year for the January-July period, to $18.5 billion from $17.9 billion same time in 2017.

“The rise in personal remittances during the first seven months of 2018 was supported by an increase of 2.8 percent and 4.0 percent in remittance inflows from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more and sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, respectively,” the central bank statement quoting Espenilla said.

For the month of July only, personal remittances went up by 4.5 percent year-on-year to $2.7 billion from $2.56 billion.

By BSP definition, personal remittances are “the sum of net compensation of employees, personal transfers and capital transfers between households.”

Cash remittances are more easily captured by the BSP since these go through the formal banking system.