Pinoy seamen remit $530 million in January 2019, up 12.7% year-on-year, US$6.14 billion in 2018

Cash remittances, a key economic support, off to strong start
March 15, 2019 https://www.bworldonline.com/cash-remittances-a-key-economic-support-off...

MONEY SENT HOME by Filipinos working abroad grew at the fastest clip in three months as this year began, even as the latest amount was less than December’s record-high inflows, according to data the central bank released on Friday.

Cash remittances increased by 4.4% to $2.484 billion in January from the year-ago $2.379 billion, even as the latest inflows were 12.8% less than December’s all-time-high $2.849 billion.

“This growth was in line with the increase in remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers”, who sent 2.3% and 12.7% more at $1.95 billion and $530 million, respectively, in January, the central bank said in a statement.

Personal remittances, which include transfers in kind other than cash, grew 3.4% to $2.745 billion in January from $2.655 billion a year ago, even though the latest inflows were 13.05% less than December’s $3.157 billion.

The latest growth rates of both personal and cash remittances, however, were slower than the 10.8% and 9.7%, respectively, clocked in January last year. Capital Economics in a note on Thursday attributed slowing remittance growth to an improving Philippine economy that has generated more jobs and an economic downturn in the Middle East that accounts for about a third of remittances.

Sought for comment, Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist of Union Bank of the Philippines, Inc., said in an e-mail that UnionBank’s Economic Research Unit (ERU) expected January inflows to have logged three-percent growth.

“This January number is actually higher-than-expected. ERU thinks that remittances growth will hover over this 3.0% this 2019. This is lower than the previous two years of 4-5% average,” Mr. Asuncion wrote.

“The expected decline may actually mean positive. This means that more Filipinos have opportunities here domestically and probably choose to stay here in the country. owever, it can also mean that opportunities abroad have been declining as well, particularly in the Middle East.”

For Security Bank Corp. economist Robert Dan J. Roces, remittances’ year-on-year growth was “driven primarily by the higher-than-anticipated growth in contributions from the sea-based components of OF workers”.

“We’ve been observing the growing importance of this sector since last quarter,” Mr. Roces said via e-mail when asked for comment, adding that “[t]he growth also signals stronger domestic demand and that consumption is back, probably coming off of the slowdown we experienced last year due to high inflation”.

At the same time, the month-on-month “decline is your usual tapering coming from the peak remittance season” towards Christmas, Mr. Roces said.

By country source, the United States accounted for the biggest share of overall remittances at 35.5%. It was followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Hong Kong and Kuwait, the central bank reported. Combined remittances from these countries accounted for almost 78% of total cash remittances.

Cash remittances increased by 3.1% — marking the slowest annual increase on record — to $28.943 billion last year from 2017’s $28.06 billion, a little past the central bank’s three-percent growth projection for 2018.

The central bank projects these inflows to sustain three percent growth this year.

Remittances from abroad fuel household spending, which in turn has long been a key driver of overall economic expansion, which the government projects to steady to 6-7% this year from 6.2% in 2018 and 6.7% in 2017. — with KANV

Filipino seafarers send home 6.14 bln USD in 2018
Xinhua| 2019-03-03 http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-03/03/c_137865420.htm

MANILA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Filipino seafarers onboard foreign ocean-going vessels sent home a record amount of 6.14 billion U.S. dollars through the banking system in 2018, up 4.6 percent or 270 million U.S. dollars from the 5.87 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2017, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives said on Sunday.

"The amount does not include money remitted via non-bank channels as well as cash physically brought home by sailors on vacations," lawmaker Aniceto Bertiz said in a statement.

By place of origin, Bertiz said the top sources of cash transfers from Filipino sailors in 2018 were the United States, 2.31 billion U.S. dollars; Singapore, 563.85 million U.S. dollars; Germany, 560.98 million U.S. dollars; Japan, 435.82 million U.S. dollars; Britain, 331.23 million U.S. dollars; China's Hong Kong, 275.53 million U.S. dollars; the Netherlands, 259.12 million U.S. dollars; Greece, 174.98 million U.S. dollars.

"We see the demand for Filipino sailors rising steadily in tandem with international merchant ship traffic, as economies around the world continue to expand," Bertiz said, adding the demand will grow as the global economy expands in 2019 and 2020.

Filipino seafarers or seamen serve on bulk carriers, container ships, oil, gas, chemical and other product tankers, general cargo ships, pure car carriers and tugboats around the world.

According to the data culled by the ACTS-OFW, there are over 500,000 at any given time, to include staff on cruise ships. It said annual deployment or redeployment averages between 450,000 to 480,000.

More than 10 million Filipinos work overseas to seek better opportunities and send back money to their families, government data show. Of this number, around 2.3 million work in the Middle East and Africa.

The Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed that personal remittances grew by 3.0 percent year-on-year in 2018, reaching 32.2 billion U.S. dollars, the highest annual level to date.

The growth in personal remittances during the year was driven by remittance inflows from land-based Overseas Filipinos (OFs) with work contracts of one year or more and remittances from both sea-based and land-based OFs with work contracts of less than one year rose annually by 2.8 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, the BSP said.

The BSP further said that personal remittances are a major driver of domestic consumption in 2018, accounting for 9.7 percent of gross domestic product and 8.1 percent of the gross national income.