Monday, January 16, 2012
MONEY sent home by overseas Filipinos grew by 7.3 percent to $18.3 billion for the first eleven months of 2011 compared to the level posted in the same period in 2010.
For November, remittances grew by 10.6 percent year-on-year to reach $1.8 billion, the highest monthly level of remittances on record so far, according to the report released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday.
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According to BSP Governor Amando Tetangco, Jr., the double-digit growth in remittance flows during the month could be attributed to additional funds sent by overseas Filipinos to their families for holiday spending.
Remittance flows from sea-based workers grew by 15.8 percent or $377.7 million, while remittances from land-based workers increased by 9.3 percent to reach $1.4 billion.
Major sources of remittances for January-November 2011 were the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Italy, Germany, and Norway.
BSP said sustained overseas demand for Filipino manpower also helped support the flow of remittances during the period, even as the US and many economies in the eurozone continued to face difficult economic conditions.
Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) indicated that the number of OFWs with processed contracts and awaiting deployment increased by 4.5 percent to 1,370,584 for January-September 2011 from 1,311,437 in the same period in 2010.
The POEA also reported that approved job orders for January-December 2011 reached 711,238, of which 40 percent consisted of processed job orders for service, production, as well as professional, technical and related workers.
Bulk of the approved job orders were mainly for job placements in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The BSP said that as more overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries are encouraged to use formal money transfer channels, banks have expanded their reach worldwide by establishing more tie-ups with remittance offices, partners and remittance agents in areas where a large number of overseas Filipinos are concentrated.
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The extensive remittance network coverage and availability of secure and reliable money transfer services as well as other innovative financial products resulted in a better capture of global remittance flows, the BSP said.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 17, 2012.
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