MANILA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) amounted to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in February, higher by 5.4 percent than those sent in the same month a year ago, according to the data released on Monday by the Central Bank (CB) of the Philippines.

CB Gov. Nestor Espenilla said this brought the cumulative remittances for the first two months of the year to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars, representing a year-on-year growth of 8.1 percent.

He said land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more recorded a 6.5 percent growth to 4.0 billion U.S. dollars while those from sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year rose by 9.7 percent to 1.0 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, cash remittances from OFs coursed through banks reached 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in February, up by 4.5 percent year-on-year.

For the first two months of 2018, he said cash remittances totaled 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, or an increase of 7.1 percent compared to the 4.3 billion U.S. dollars level posted in the same period last year.