The amount of remittances sent back home by overseas Filipinos has reached 7.8 billion USD in the first quarter of 2018 (Photo: ibtimes.co.uk) Hanoi (VNA) – The central bank of the Philippines reported on May 16 that the amount of remittances sent back home by overseas Filipinos has reached 7.8 billion USD in the first quarter of 2018, up 1.3 percent year-on-year.
The central bank’s deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said most of the sum, or 77.5 percent of the remittances, was from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which summed up to 6.1 billion USD, while 20 percent derived from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, amounting to 1.6 billion USD for the same period.
However, Guinigundo said the amount of personal remittances in March 2018 was 2.6 billion USD, or 9.9 percent lower than the level posted in the same month last year.
The countries that registered the biggest declines in cash remittances in March were Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and the US.
The continued repatriation of overseas Filipino workers from the Middle East countries could have affected the inflows of cash remittances.
Preliminary data from the Department of Labor and Employment indicated that as of February 8, a total of 1,124 overseas Filipino workers were repatriated from Kuwait.-VNA
VNA
