MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in August 2020 declined year-on-year by 4.2 percent to US$2.756 from $2.875 billion recorded in August 2019.
Total remittances for the first eight months of the year reached $21.414 billion, a slight decrease of 2.6 percent from the $21.995 billion recorded in the same period in 2019.
Money sent home by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more declined to $2.118 billion in August 2020, 4.6 percent lower than $2.221 billion recorded in August 2019. Similarly, remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year fell by 2.2 percent to $580 million in August 2020 from $593 million a year ago.
Cash remittances that are coursed through banks declined by 4.1 percent to $2.483 billion in August 2020 from $2.589 billion in August 2019. From January to August 2020, cash remittances amounted to $19.285 billion, 2.6 percent lower than the $19.808 billion registered in the same period last year. This was due to the decline in remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers, which fell by 1.9 percent and 5.3 percent.
By country source, the decline in remittances in August was noted from Saudi Arabia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These were partly offset by observed remittance growth from the US, Singapore and Malaysia. The US registered the highest share to total OFW cash remittances year-to-date at 40.2 percent followed by Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Qatar. (KOC)