PERSONAL REMITTANCES HIT $1.9B IN OCTOBER

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PERSONAL remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) posted a recordhigh level of $1.9 billion in October, representing an increase of 8.5 percent from a year ago figure, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. announced on Monday.

This brought cumulative cash transfers in January to October to $17.5 billion, higher by 5.8 percent than the level posted in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, OFW remittances registered an 8.2 percent year-onyear increase in October 2012 to $2.1 billion.

In his statement, Tetangco said that on a cumulative basis, remittances totaled $19.5 billion for the first 10 months of the year, higher by 5.9 percent than the level recorded in the comparable period in 2011.

“Personal remittances continued to expand on the back of the 13.8percent growth in the fund transfers by sea- based workers and landbased workers with short-term contracts, as well as the 3.6-percent expansion in remittances by land- based OFWs with work contracts of one year or more,” he said.

Remittances of land-based workers, which grew by 3.7 percent to $13.5 billion in the first 10 months of the year, accounted for 77 percent of total cash remittances, Tetangco said.

“In addition, remittances of seabased workers rose appreciably by 13.7 percent year-on-year to $4 billion during the 10-month period. More than three-fourths [78.2] percent of the total cash remittances coursed through banks came from the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Japan, United Arab of Emirates and Singapore,” he added.

Remittances remained strong despite fragile economic conditions in advanced economies and renewed geopolitical tensions in some parts of the Middle East. Remittance flows were supported by the steady deployment of skilled and professional Filipino manpower abroad, combined with commercial banks’ continued efforts to build up their network of remittance business partners worldwide.

In the preliminary reports by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration indicated that 41.9 percent, or 302,173 of the total ap- proved job orders of 721,338 in January to November 2012 were processed during the period.

The central bank said that processed job orders were intended mainly for manpower demand for overseas Filipinos in the fields of service, production, and professional technical and related job categories in countries in the Middle East region, particularly Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

The sustained demand for overseas Filipino manpower provides support for a continuing favorable outlook for remittances through end-2012.