MANILA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos reached an "all-time high" of 37.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, 3 percent higher than the 36.1 billion dollars recorded in 2022, the Philippine central bank said on Thursday.
"The robust inward remittances reflected the rise in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers due to the continuous increase in demand for foreign workers in host countries," the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
According to the BSP, the full-year 2023 remittances represented 8.5 percent and 7.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national income, respectively.
The BSP said that the growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates contributed mainly to the increase in remittances in 2023. It added that the United States posted the highest share of overall remittances in 2023, followed by Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Personal remittances remain a significant source of the Southeast Asian country's foreign exchange inflows. Filipinos overseas send an annual remittance equivalent to about 10 percent of the Philippine GDP. ■