MANILA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Philippine personal remittances grew by 8.5 percent year-on-year to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in January, the local central bank said Wednesday.
Money transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more have pushed personal remittances to grow.
"The continued increase in personal remittances was mainly driven by the 13.5 percent growth in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more (which summed up to 1.9 billion U.S. dollars)," said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
This offset the 8.3 percent decline in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year at 0.4 billion U.S. dollars, he said.
Cash remittances, which is part of personal remittances, from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in January, higher by 8.6 percent from a year ago level.
Bulk of the cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, China's Hong Kong, Qatar, Kuwait, and Australia.
Tetangco said that the combined remittances from these countries and regions accounted for more than 79 percent of total cash remittances.
