By Julito G. Rada |
Feb. 16, 2015 at 10:30pm [ manilastandardtoday.com]
Money sent home by Filipinos working
overseas reached a record $24.3 billion in 2014, up by 5.8 percent from the
2013 level of $23 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.
Data showed that cash remittances in
December climbed 6.6 percent to an all-time high of $2.3 billion from $2.2
billion a year earlier.
“Cash remittances from land-based and
sea-based workers reached $18.7 billion and $5.6 billion, respectively. The bulk of cash remittances came from the
United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom,
Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada,” Bangko Sentral said.
The bank said including non-cash
items, personal remittances grew 6.4 percent to $2.6 billion in December and
6.2 percent to $26.9 billion in 2014.
This exceeded Bangko Sentral’s growth projection of 5 percent growth for
the year.
“The robust growth of OF remittances
continued to provide support to the country’s economy, with cash remittances
accounting for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2014,” Bangko Sentral
Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said.
Strong demand for skilled Filipino
manpower contributed to the steady growth of remittances, with data from the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showing that the number of
deployed workers last year reached 1.6 million.
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