Sept remittances up 8.1% to $2.3 B

MANILA, Philippines - Remittances from overseas Filipino workers amounted to $2.3 billion in September, rising 8.1 percent relative to the comparable period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.

In a report, the central bank said for the first nine months of the year, personal remittances amounted to $19.6 billion, representing a 6.7-percent year-on-year growth.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the growth in remittances was driven by the steady increase in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more (5.4 percent), and sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year (8.2 percent).

Meanwhile, remittances coursed through banks increased 7.9 percent to $2.1 billion in September, totaling $17.6 billion in the nine-month period or a 6.1 percent growth compared to $16.6 billion in the same period last year.

The leading sources of money transfers are the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.

Remittances from land-based and sea-based workers grew 5.4 percent (to $13.5 billion) and 8.3 percent (to $4.2 billion), respectively, attributed mainly to the sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas.

Based on preliminary reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for the period January to September 2014, job orders reached 680,392, of which 43.1 percent were processed job orders intended for service, production and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar.