MANILA, Philippines – Money sent home by Filipinos climbed to a three-month high in October, though the pace of growth slowed, amid a weak peso that stretched the value of overseas earnings and encouraged larger transfers ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
Cash remittances coursed through banks rose 3 percent to $3.17 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Monday.
This marked the highest inflow since last July, when Filipino migrants wired home $3.18 billion, but the pace of increase was slower than September’s clip of 3.7 percent.
The gain lifted remittances in the first 10 months of the year to $29.2 billion, up 3.2 percent from a year earlier. For the entire year, the BSP projected inflows to grow by 3 percent to $35.5 billion, serving as a vital source of fuel for the country’s consumption-driven economy.
“Potential factors for sustained remittance growth in October include peso depreciation, low Philippine inflation and positive economic growth in remittance source countries. We think the 3-percent growth is not worrying and in fact consistent with the long-term remittance growth trajectory,” Angelo Taningco, chief economist at Security Bank, said.
“Our 2025 overseas Filipino remittance forecast is $35.5 billion, in line with BSP’s, and therefore believe that the last two months of the year would bring full-year remittances towards our forecast,” Taningco added.
The United States remained the single largest source of remittances in the January-to-October period, accounting for 40.3 percent of the total, the central bank said.
But that figure comes with a caveat: many remittance centers abroad route their transfers through correspondent banks based in the US, inflating America’s share.
This was followed by Singapore with a 7.2-percent share, and Saudi Arabia, where 6.4 percent of inflows came from.
Jonathan Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong & Co., said the BSP’s 3-percent remittance growth forecast of the BSP for the year looks well within reach.
