OFW remittances reach $14.8B

REMITTANCES from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) already reached US$14.8 billion in the first nine months of this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported.

In September alone, transfer of funds through banks totaled US$1.7 billion, registering an 8.4 percent growth. Remittances from land-based workers, comprising about 78 percent of the total, increased by 5.3 percent or US$11.6 billion, while those of sea-based workers expanded by 14.1 percent or US$3.2 billion.

In a factsheet, BSP said top 10 country sources of remittances included the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Italy, Germany and Norway. “OFW remittances continued to be an important contributor in solidifying the country’s economic fundamentals amidst the lingering global economic uncertainties, driven by prospects of sustained demand for Filipino workers abroad.”

It added that as per reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the number of processed job orders for overseas workers for Saudi Arabia, UAE, Taiwan, Qatar, Kuwait and Hong Kong totaled 223,172 or 40.7 percent of the total approved job orders from January 1 to October 31, 2011.

The number of land-based workers with processed contracts and are waiting to be deployed, meanwhile, increased by 4.5 percent to 933,579 from 893,220 in the same period last year, while those of sea-based workers rose by 5.5 percent or 316,411 from 300,033.

BSP also said the wider remittance network of banks and financial institutions “allowed both the remitters and beneficiaries to experience a more diverse and economical set of money transfer channels and services as well as encourage the increased use of the banking system as remittance conduits.”

Total number of bank branches, correspondent banks, remittance centers and tie-ups with OFW remittances abroad grew by 6.7 percent to 4,688 compared to 4,392 as of end-September last year. (CGC)