Bangko Sentral: Remittances up 15% in August
Maricel E. Burgonio
Manila Times
Money sent home by overseas Filipinos went back to a double-digit growth level in August this year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said yesterday.
In a statement, BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said remittances of overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose 15.31 percent to $9.337 billion in January to August this year compared to $7.022 billion in the same period last year.
“Remittances during the review period remained robust even as the total number of deployed Filipino workers declined,” Tetangco said.
In August alone, remittances posted 10.59-percent growth to $1.206 billion this year from $1.091 billion last year. “This marked the sixteenth straight month that inflows were above $1 billion.”
In July, remittances reached $1.096 billion.
The sustained growth in remittances was attributed to the demographic trends in advanced economies, geographical and skill diversification of Filipinos abroad. Banks are expanding the number of remittance centers abroad and tie-ups with foreign financial institutions. Specifically, the banks are enhancing their money transfer services and easier access to financial products such as facilitating faster, cheaper and more efficient fund transfer services.
Some banks also plan to convert remittance centers into banks offering expanded services next year.
“These developments are expected to further encourage remittance flows into the banking system and support high levels of remittances in the medium term,” a Bangko Sentral statement said.
It expects 10-percent growth in remittances amounting to $14 billion this year from $12.9 billion last year.
Meanwhile, preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the total number of deployed workers declined by 3.7 percent to 726,620 from January to August 2007 compared with the same period a year ago.
Classified by type of worker, the cumulative number of land-based and sea-based workers aggregated 560,356 and 166,264, respectively. These deployment figures were lower by 1.6 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively, compared to their year-ago levels.
According to the POEA, in the case of sea-based workers, the contraction in deployment was due mainly to shortfalls in the supply of Marine officers to fill up vacancies in foreign shipping vessels, delays in the issuance of working visas and competition from other Asian and European seafarers.
The US, the UK, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong continue to be the major sources of remittances.
Hong Kong Shanghai and Banking Corp. (HSBC) earlier said remittances in the Philippines will remain robust as young qualified Filipinos are serving the labor requirements in other economies with more rapidly aging populations.
Remittances, in short, will continue to propel the Philippine economy, driving the growth for years to come, Frederic Neumann, HSBC economist, said in a recent Global Research report.
Neumann added the country appears well placed to exploit an increasingly important trend in the global economy: the shortage of qualified workers in industrialized nations.
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