Filipinos sent home a record $17.3B last year

Millions of Filipinos working abroad sent home a record $17.3 billion last year, boosting local consumption and the economy amid the global slump, the central bank said on Monday. Remittances grew by 5.6 percent from $16.4 billion in the prior year and accounted for 10.8 percent of the country's economic output. The central bank traced steady remittance flows to the sustained demand for Filipino engineers, medical practitioners and teachers. It also said countries with which the Philippines has bilateral deals continued to open up employment opportunities abroad for Filipinos. The expansion of remittance service here and abroad also fueled growth. The end-2009 remittance growth exceeded the central bank's 4-percent target. Remittances from sea-based and land-based workers rose by 12.1 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively. For December alone, remittances grew by 11.4 percent to their highest level of $1.6 billion. Major remittance sources for the full year were the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Italy and Germany, the central bank said. The government said 41.6 percent or 221,548 of the approved job orders of more than half-a-million were processed during the year, adding to the stock of those who sent money home. The openings were mainly service, production, professional and technical jobs in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Hong Kong. The remaining 58.4 percent are still to be filled up. The central bank said not all host countries had been severely affected by the crisis. Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia — the major destination for Filipinos —absorbed a number of deployed workers, including those that had been displaced elsewhere. — Norman P. Aquino, GMANews.TV