Personal Remittances Rise by 3.1 Percent YoY to US$2.9 Billion in March 2022; First Quarter Level Reaches US$8.6 Billion

​Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) in March 2022 reached US$2.888 billion, 3.1 percent higher than the US$2.801 billion posted in the same month last year. This resulted in the growth of the cumulative personal remittances by 2.3 percent to US$8.646 billion in the first quarter of 2022 from US$8.454 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2021.

The increase in personal remittances in March was due to remittances sent by 1) land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 3.7 percent to US$2.195 billion from US$2.116 billion in the same month last year, and 2) sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which increased by 1.4 percent to US$625 million from US$616 million a year ago.

Similarly, cash remittances coursed through banks grew by 3.2 percent to US$2.594 billion in March 2022 from US$2.514 billion registered in the same month in 2021. The expansion in cash remittances was due to the growth in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which increased by 3.7 percent (to US$2.021 billion from US$1.948 billion) and 1.3 percent (to US$573 million from US$566 million), respectively. On a year-to-date basis, cash remittances amounted to US$7.771. billion in the first quarter of 2022, higher by 2.4 percent than the year-ago level of US$7.593 billion.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States (US), Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia contributed largely to the increase in remittances in the first quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, in terms of country sources, the US registered the highest share of overall remittances at 41.5 percent in Q1 2022, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar, and Malaysia.¹ The combined remittances from these top ten countries accounted for 79.1 percent of total cash remittances during the period.

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¹ There are some limitations on the remittance data by source. A common practice of remittance centers in various cities abroad is to course remittances through correspondent banks, most of which are located in the U.S. Also, remittances coursed through money couriers cannot be disaggregated by actual country source and are lodged under the country where the main offices are located, which, in many cases, is in the U.S. Therefore, the U.S. would appear to be the main source of OF remittances because banks attribute the origin of funds to the most immediate source. The countries are listed in order of their share of cash remittances, i.e., from highest to lowest.

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