By Lawrence Agcaoili (The
Philippine Star) | Updated March 16, 2016 - 12:00am
BSP Governor Amando
Tetangco Jr. said cash remittances from overseas Filipinos climbed 3.4 percent
to $2.02 billion in January from $1.965 billion in the same month last year.
File photo
Steady growth despite
softening oil prices in Middle East
MANILA, Philippines – Money
sent home by Filipinos abroad continued to post steady growth in January
despite the impact of the continued softening of oil prices on the economies in
the Middle East, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.
BSP Governor Amando
Tetangco Jr. said cash remittances from overseas Filipinos climbed 3.4 percent
to $2.02 billion in January from $1.965 billion in the same month last year.
Tetangco said remittances
from land-based Filipino workers went up three percent to $1.6 billion while
remittances from sea-based workers increased 4.6 percent to $447 million.
The BSP chief said more
than 75 percent of the cash remittances came from the US, Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Qatar and
Japan.
“Remittance flows from
overseas Filipinos remained silent, underpinned by the sustained demand for
skilled Filipino manpower overseas,” the BSP chief said.
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Data from the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed 30.5 percent of the 84,670
total approved orders in January were processed during the period.
Processed job orders were
intended mainly to fill demand for service, production, and professional,
technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and the
UAE.
Tetangco also cited the
efforts of bank and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their
international and domestic market coverage through their network of remittance
business partners worldwide also provided support to steady remittance flows.
On the other hand, personal
remittances also increased 3.4 percent to $2.23 billion in January from $2.07
billion in the same month last year.
Personal remittance is computed
as the sum of gross earnings of overseas Filipino workers with work contracts
of less than one year, including all sea-based workers, less taxes, social
contributions, and transportation and travel expenditures in their host
countries.
Tetangco said personal
remittance flows consisted primarily of transfers from land-based workers with
contracts of one year or more amounting to $1.7 billion as well as compensation
of sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts reaching
$500 million.
Cash remittances rose 4.6
percent to $25.77 billion last year from $24.63 billion in 2014 amid the strong
demand for skilled Filipino workers abroad.
For this year, remittances
are expected to increase four percent on account of the steady deployment of
Filipino workers, greater diversification of country destinations, and shift to
higher-skilled types of work.
ING Bank Manila chief
economist Joey Cuyegkeng sees cash remittances growing between two percent and
three percent this year.
“A downshift in remittance
growth would require an upshift in the investment rate to sustain six percent,”
he said.
The investment bank
executive said mid single-digit remittance growth since 2009 has kept them at
eight to 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), supporting a six percent
GDP growth with a 20 percent investment rate.
Finance Undersecretary Gil
Beltran said Middle East continues to be a strong source of remittances despite
record low oil prices.
Beltran, who is also the
finance department’s chief economist, pointed out the government should be
prepared with options when the effect of the oil price crises starts to seep
in.
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