Personal remittances reach US$9.3B in first five months of 2012

Wednesday 18th of July 2012

MANILA, July 18 (PIA) -- Personal remittances for the first five months of the year totaled $9.3 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement.

BSP said the figure represents a 5.5 percent increase from the level registered in the same period last year.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. said the steady expansion in personal remittances during the five-month period in 2012 was underpinned by sustained growth in transfers from land-based overseas Filipino workers with work contracts of one year or more, by 2.7 percent, as well as sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, by 14.7 percent. In May 2012, personal remittances from OFWs rose year-on-year by 5.2 percent to reach almost $2 billion.

Meanwhile, remittances coursed through banks during the same period amounted to $8.3 billion, higher by 5.3 percent relative to the level registered in the same period a year ago, Tetangco said.

On the other hand, fund transfers from land-based workers increased by 2.8 percent to US$6.4 billion while those from sea-based workers grew by 14.6 percent to $1.9 billion, he added.

The major country sources of cash remittances from land-based workers for the first five months of the year were the U.S., 28.9 percent; Canada, 10.1 percent; Saudi Arabia, 7.6 percent; the United Arab Emirates, 3.9 percent; Japan, 3.4 percent; United Kingdom, 3.2 percent; and Singapore, 3.1 percent.

Tetangco credited the continued stream of remittances with the strong global demand for professional and skilled Filipino workers.

Preliminary data obtained from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) indicated that for the first half of the year, approved job orders reached 395,336, of which 29.1 percent consisted of processed job orders for service, production and professional, technical and related workers.

The bulk of processed job orders were intended for the manpower requirements in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Taiwan. Another contributory factor to the favorable trend in remittances is the continued expansion of banks’ remittance network abroad through additional partnerships with foreign banks, money transfer operators and other remittance agents. (BSP/RJB/JCP/PIA NCR)