MANILA - Cash remittances sent by overseas Filipinos that are coursed through banks grew by 2.5 percent in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

Cash remittances for the month reached $2.668 billion from $2.603 billion in the same month last year, BSP said in a statement.

"The expansion in cash remittances was due to the increase in receipts from land-based and sea-based workers," the central bank said.

Cash remittances from the United States, Japan and Singapore contributed largely to the increase in remittances in January 2022, it added.

In terms of country sources, the US posted the highest share of overall remittance at 41.2 percent for the month, followed by Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arad Emirates, Canada, Taiwan, Qatar and Malaysia.

The combined remittances from the top 10 countries accounted for 79.6 percent of the total cash remittances during the period, the BSP said.

Personal remittances, meanwhile, also rose 2.5 percent to $2.966 billion in January from $2.895 in the same comparable period, data showed.

The continued and resilient flow of remittances from overseas Filipinos contributed to the country's strong macroeconomic performance, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said.

The country's "hefty" dollar reserves helped cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the rising oil prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, among others, he said.

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