Remittances post record-high $20B in 2011

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went up 7.2 percent to $20.1 billion last year despite challenges posed by political tensions in the Middle East, effects of strong quake and tsunami in Japan, and sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

In a report by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Deputy Governor Juan de Zuñiga Jr. said the substantial expansion of fund transfers from Filipinos abroad was due to higher remittances from both sea-based and land-based workers, which rose by 14 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.

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The remittances of land-based workers accounted for about three-fourths or 78.4 percent of total remittances. For the month of December 2011, remittances grew by 6.2 percent, registering the highest monthly level at $1.8 billion, BSP data show.

"This developed owing to the diversified destinations and skills of overseas Filipinos, the strategic network of bank and non-bank service providers across the globe as well as the new financial products and money transfer services offered in the remittance market which helped better capture global remittances," Zuñiga said.

The sustained inflows are sourced mainly from the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Italy, Germany and Norway.

In a separate report, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that for January 2012, 12.3 percent (or 7,160) of the total approved job orders of 58,123 were processed.

The processed job orders were mainly in the service, production, and professional, technical and related job categories, particularly in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Taiwan, Singapore and Kuwait.

In 2010, remittances reached $18.76 billion, up almost 8.2 percent from the previous year's $17.35 billion. The BSP is expecting money transfers to grow by five percent to $21.1 billion in 2012. (Sunnex)