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Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos reached 33.194 billion dollars in 2020, lower by 0.8 per cent than the 33.467 billion dollars recorded in 2019, the Philippine Central Bank said on Monday.

Nonetheless, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that personal remittances remained a major source of the country's foreign exchange inflows, with the 2020 level representing 9.2 per cent of the gross domestic product and 8.5 per cent of the gross national income, Xinhua reported.

The BSP said personal remittances from overseas Filipinos fell slightly by 0.3 per cent year-on-year to 3.205 billion dollars in December 2020 from 3.216 billion dollars in December 2019.

The BSP attributed the slight decrease to the 0.7 per cent decrease in remittances from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more to 2.494 billion dollars from 2.512 billion dollars recorded in December 2019.

Meanwhile, the BSP said remittances from sea-based workers and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose slightly by 0.8 per cent to 647 million dollars in December 2020 from 642 million dollars in December 2019.

An estimated 12 million Filipinos are working abroad, according to the Philippine government data.