BSP Reports 31 Billion Dollar Inflow In 2025, Much Of Which Was Already Obligated Before Arrival
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Overseas Filipino Workers sent home a record USD 31.8 billion in personal remittances during 2025, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced Wednesday, a milestone figure that economic observers note has been almost entirely offset by increased government expenditure in advance of the actual inflow.
BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. presented the remittance data at a joint press conference with the Department of Finance, who used the same event to announce an 8.4 percent increase in 2026 government spending, citing “favorable external account conditions” and “sustained confidence in Philippine economic resilience.”
Critics, including former Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and several independent economists, noted that the Philippine government’s spending commitments have routinely run ahead of actual OFW remittance inflows, with the net effect that the remittance surplus becomes immediately absorbed by government consumption.
The Mathematics
OFW remittances in 2025 were approximately 1 percent of Philippine GDP. Government spending increases for 2026 are, according to Bohiney Magazine‘s calculations, approximately 1.2 percent of GDP. The net effect is that the remittance surplus does not accumulate as household savings, balance-of-payments surplus, or investment capital. It is absorbed, in real time, by government expenditure.
“The system is set up so that OFW earnings do not translate into household wealth accumulation,” explained economist Cielito Habito, a former Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning. “The earnings flow through the household, are taxed at various points, and are captured by the broader economic framework without producing durable benefit to the sending families.”
The OFW Family Perspective
Maria Lourdes Cruz, 43, whose husband has worked in Saudi Arabia for 11 years, described the situation. “I send four children to school. I pay for my mother-in-law’s medicines. I pay for the electricity and water. I pay the interest on a loan we took out during the last typhoon. After all this, there is nothing left. I have been telling my husband for three years that we should save. There is nothing to save.”
The BSP and Department of Finance did not address OFW family savings specifically in their joint presentation. The metric was not included in the performance dashboard.
For continuing economic coverage see Rappler Business and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/