By Prinz P. Magtulis (The Philippine
Star) | Updated November 16, 2012 - 12:18am
MANILA, Philippines - Growth in money
sent home by Filipinos abroad remained on track to meeting the full-year
forecast as of the third quarter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
reported yesterday.
Cash remittances coursed through banks
amounted to $1.838 billion in September alone, an improvement of 5.9 percent
from the previous year, BSP data showed.
This brought the year-to-date
remittance to $15.571 billion, up 5.5 percent.
BSP sees a five-percent remittance
expansion this year, although this outlook is up for revision this month.
Data further showed that personal
remittances – which include hand-carry money transfers – rose at a faster six
percent in September and 5.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year.
“Remittances remained resilient on the
back of sustained foreign demand for skilled Filipino manpower and continued
financial service innovations of banks and other financial institutions,” BSP
Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in a statement.
Data from the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration included in the statement showed a total of 262,444
job orders processed in the first 10 months of the year. Most workerswere
deployed to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar.
There were also a total of 1.276
million people still awaiting deployment as of July this year, the number
represents an 8.9-percent increase from previous year.
Espenilla said “higher transfers” from
OFWs to their beneficiaries affected by the southwest monsoon and tropical
storm “Helen” in August could have also contributed to “the sustained rise in
remittances.”
Cash remittances mainly came from the
United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, UAE and
Singapore. These countries accounted for 78.3 percent of the total, Espenilla
added.
Remittances are part of the country’s
balance of payments (BOP) which measures a country’s capacity to meet external
trade and debt obligations.
In the third quarter, BOP already hit
a surplus of $5.831 billion, more than twice the BSP’s $2.6-billion forecast
for 2012.
Last year, cash remittances reached
$20.117 billion.
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