OFW remittances seen growing 10% in November

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) Updated August 03, 2010 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - First Metro Investments

Corp., a unit of the Metrobank Group of taipan George SK Ty, and University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) see the amount of money sent home by Filipinos overseas growing by as much as 10 percent in November on the back of steady demand for skilled workers and professionals overseas.

In a study, FMIC and UA&P said the level of remittances would continue its growth pace due to the stable demand for professional and skilled Filipino workers abroad.

“We see that dollar remittances will continue its growth pace. Dollar remittances growth will probably accelerate to 10 percent by November. However, remittances in peso terms will only be slightly in the positive territory because of the peso appreciation,” they said in the study.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that OFW remittances hit a new monthly record high of $1.578 billion in May on the back of steady demand for professional and skilled workers as well as the continued expansion of remittance conduits. This eclipsed the previous monthly record of $1.567 billion registered in December last year.

OFW remittances increased by 6.5 percent or $96 million from $1.48 billion in May last year, bringing the amount of money sent home by overseas Filipinos to $7.44 billion in the first five months of the year or 6.6 percent higher than the $6.98 billion registered booked in the same month last year.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported that approved jobs aggregated 302,844 in the first half of the year of which about 35 percent consisted of processed job orders for service, professional, technical, and production in tended for the manpower requirements of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan.

The bulk of the job orders in the first half included the deployment of 119 health workers comprising of the second batch of nurses and caregivers under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement last May.

Main country sources of remittances in the first five months of the year included the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and Italy accounting for about 81.5 percent of the total OFW remittances.

The BSP has upgraded its growth forecast for the amount of money sent home by overseas Filipinos to eight percent instead of six percent due to the strong demand for Filipino skilled workers.