The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP said that the money sent by overseas Filipinos in January 2022 sustained an upward trajectory amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BSP said that the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels reached $2.966 billion in January. This is 2.5% more than the $2.895 billion recorded in the same month in 2021.

“The increase in personal remittances in January was due to remittances sent by land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more, which grew by 2.9% to $2.283 billion from $2.219 billion in the same month last year, and sea- and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year, which increased by 1.2% to $617 million from $609 million a year ago,” the BSP said in a statement.

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Cash remittances through formal channels such as banks, grew by 2.5% year-on-year to $2.668 billion from $2.603 billion recorded in the same month last year.

“The expansion in cash remittances was due to the increase in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers, which rose by 2.9% (to $2.103 billion from $2.044 billion) and 1.2% (to $565 million from $558 million), respectively,” the Central Bank added,

United States, Japan, and Singapore were the most number of remittances came from.

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The U.S. is at 41.2% in January, followed by Singapore (7.4%), Japan (5.9%), Saudi Arabia (5.9%), the United Kingdom (4.8%), the United Arab Emirates (3.2%), Canada (3.2%), Taiwan (2.7%), Qatar (2.7%), and Malaysia (2.5%) in terms of remittances.

“However, a risk factor is a recent surge in new COVID cases in some host countries for OFWs, leading to some restrictions in travel/flights/mobility that could slow the recovery in the global economy and in OFW remittances,” an analyst said.