Thursday, November 15, 2007
OFW remittances up by 15% (3:53 p.m.)
MANILA - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday reported that remittances from Filipinos working overseas rose 15 percent to P10.5 billion in the first nine months of the year.
According to the BSP from January to September remittances from OFWs grew 15 percent to US$10.5
billion as compared to the US$9 billion posted in 2006 for the same period.
"The robust inflows in September, while slightly lower than the remittances in August, remained above US$1.0
billion for the seventeenth straight month. This brings total remittances for the first nine months of the year to US$10.5 billion, 15.0 percent higher than the level posted during the same period a year ago," the Central bank said in a statement.
The bulk of the remittance came from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.
BSP attributed the continued strong remittances to the expanded banking services being provided by local banks and this has encouraged the use of formal channels of remittance transfer.
Likewise, local banks have been increasing the number of remittance centers abroad and establishing tie-ups with foreign financial institutions to better respond to the needs of overseas workers. (Marie Neri/Sunnex) |
