MANILA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances from Overseas Filipinos (OFs) fell by 4.9 percent to 2.615 billion U.S. dollars in June, the Philippine central bank said on Wednesday.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Nestor Espenilla also announced that personal remittances from OFs totaled 15.8 billion U.S. dollars during the first half of 2018, posting a 2.8 percent year-on-year growth.

"Personal remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more grew by 2.5 percent to 12.2 billion U.S. dollars, while transfers from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts likewise increased by 3.4 percent to 3.2 billion U.S. dollars for the same period," Espenilla added.

For the first semester of 2018, he said cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks recorded a 2.7 percent growth from the same period a year ago to reach 14.2 billion U.S. dollars.

For June, however, he said total cash remittances fell by 4.5 percent year-on-year to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars.

The countries that registered the biggest declines in cash remittances in June 2018 are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, Espenilla said.

Espenilla said the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) repatriation program of the government may have partly affected the remittance flows for the month. During the first two months of 2018, he said a total of 4,149 OFWs were repatriated from UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Furthermore, he said preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for 2017 showed that the number of deployed land-based workers (LBWs) dropped by 3.28 percent or 1,614,674 LBWs, year-on-year, while that of the sea-based workers (SBWs) fell by 14.62 percent or 378,072 SBWs.

Cash remittances coming from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Britain, UAE, Japan, Qatar, Germany, China's Hong Kong and Canada accounted for more than 79 percent of total cash remittances for the first six months of 2018, Espenilla said.

The Philippines is one of the world's largest recipients of remittances, with millions of Filipinos working overseas. Enditem

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