OFW remittances up slightly to $1.92-B in Q1

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that remittances from overseas Filipino workers for the first three months of 2004 increased slightly to $1.92 billion from $1.84 billion in the same period last year.

BSP Acting Governor Alberto Reyes said the modest 4.3 percent rise in OFW remittances in the first quarter will provide a comfortable buffer to the projected three percent remittance growth for the whole of 2004.

Reyes also noted that the last two months of the quarter each yielded almost 10-percent annual growth in remittances. OFW remittances were recorded at $594.4, million and $704.6 million for March.

He attributed the favorable first quarter OFW remittance performance mainly to the weaker peso which reached its lowest level in March that allowed a higher conversion of foreign exchange, mainly dollars.

The seasonal remittances in time for school enrolment was also one of the factors cited by the BSP that paved the way for the growth in the quarterly remittances of OFWs.

The increase in the number of OFWs for the period also boosted remittances. "(There was) the observed 18.9 percent increase in the deployment of Filipino workers abroad to 281,526 from 236,699 in the same quarter in 2003," the BSP official said.

Based on Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) data, the number of land-based workers grew by 23.8 percent to 224,433 while sea-based workers rose by three percent to 57,093.

Increased fund transfers from Hong Kong, the US, United Kingdom and Italy were observed during the reference quarter, which more than compensated for the slack in remittances from other traditional labor markets such as Japan and Singapore.

It was noted that except from Hong Kong, the above cited four countries are the usual destinations of higher-paid workers like caretakers/caregivers, nurses, information technology workers, office managers, clerks, etc.).

For 2004, the BSP has been projecting a modest three-percent increase in OFW remittances and a 10-percent increase in exports which would generate dollars to beef up the country’s gross international reserves (GIR).

This year, the BSP projects the GIR, which represents the central bank’s US dollars holdings, gold reserves, other foreign currencies and special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to range between $14 to $15 billion.