BSP: Personal Remittance Record $33 Billion in 2019, A Record High

February 21, 2020 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announces that personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos have reached a record high of US$33 billion in 2019.

In a media release, the BSP said December 2019 alone poses the biggest year-on-year growth for the entire year. The reason for this growth is primarily from remittances of land-based workers abroad. The number amounted to US$25.6 billion, up from US$24.8 from before. There is also a 6.5% rise in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers whose contracts are less than one year.

How did the Overseas Filipinos remit money? Most were coursed through banks. The total cash remittances in 2019 amounted to US$30.1 billion, an all-time high. BSP said cash remittances throughout 2019 remained strong “despite political uncertainties across the globe.”

Furthermore, most of the remittances were mainly from the US at 37.6%. This is followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Arab Emirates, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, and Kuwait. These 10 countries accounted for 78.4% of the total cash remittances during the period.

Personal remittances have also been recording all-time highs even in monthly reports. For example in November 2019, the record was US24.6 billion. Long term Overseas Filipinos helped in supporting the growth of personal remittances in the country.

The data’s limitation is that since it is a common practice for remittance providers globally to set the US as the default place of origin of the remittance, it probably contributed to the fact that majority of the remittances are coming from the United States. Furthermore, cross-border transactions using cryptocurrencies are not recorded.

This article is published on BitPinas: BSP: Personal Remittance Record $33 Billion in 2019, A Record High