Jan.-July remittances top $10B, BSP reports

Money sent home by Filipinos abroad topped $10 billion, up by 7.1 percent in the first seven months of the year on unabated worldwide demand for manpower, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. reported Wednesday. Tetangco said that overseas remittances totaled $10.679 billion January-July, up by $706 million from $9.973 billion in the same comparable period. Money transferred by sea-based Filipino workers grew by 9.4 percent, that of land-based workers by 6.5 percent, according to central bank data. "Underpinning mainly the resilience of remittances is the continued demand for Filipino manpower worldwide as global employment prospects remained favorable," Tetangco stressed. Workers classified as new hires with processed contracts waiting for deployment rose by 15.1 percent to 251,748 from 218,627, data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed. In January-August – the first eight months – job orders that were approved totaled 447,936 of which 36.8 percent were processed for the service, professional, technical, and production and related sectors. New employment opportunities The outlook for remittances remains favorable with the opening up of new employment opportunities for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Guam because of the construction of US military facilities that include a naval hospital, according to the Department of Labor and Employment. The 10-year construction will require 7,000 to 10,000 workers a year starting 2011 to 2020. The US military relocation in Tinian island in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands or CNMI and the construction of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Express Railway Line also open new jobs for OFWs, the Labor Department said. The central bank said that money transferred from the US, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Italy accounted for 81.7 percent of remittances in the first seven months of 2010. In July alone, Tetangco said that remittances grew 8.2 percent to $1.616 billion from $1.494 billion in July 2009. The July figures were the second highest monthly record following the $1.623 billion registered in June. In 2009, remittances grew by 5.6 percent to a new record $17.348 billion from $16.426 billion in 2008 and exceeded the revised 4 percent forecast by the central bank as the amount of money transfers rose with the corresponding demand for skilled Filipinos, particularly engineers, medical practitioners, and teachers. The central bank's policy-setting Monetary Board earlier revised its money transfer forecast to 8 percent from 6 percent because such developments. With the Christmas season – a money transfer season for OFWs and their families – in the offing, authorities expect that remittances would stay strong in the second half. "Given sustained remittance flows at the onset of the second half of the year amidst the uneven pace of global economic recovery, a steady level of transfers from overseas Filipinos is anticipated for the remaining months of 2010," Tetango said. The steady stream of money transfers is supported by an expanding global network of banks and non-bank remittance centers with established tie-ups with foreign financial institutions. 'Enhanced financial services' "Their aggressive marketing efforts to provide enhanced financial services to cater to the various needs of overseas Filipinos are expected to further shore up remittance flows through the banking system," the BSP chief added. The Monetary Board earlier waived the fees on banks that use the Philippine Payments and Settlements System or PhilPaSS for six months to bring down the cost shouldered by OFWs when transferring money to relatives in the Philippines. This would be in place this quarter when PhilPaSS is in full swing, which translates to P100 to P500 in savings per transaction, as the system would cut the charges to P50 for each remittance from the present practice of charging an OFW between P150 and P550 each time he or she sends money to the Philippines. The central bank earlier estimated that OFW families could save from P92 million to P922 million each year on the cost of sending money once the PhilPaSS is in place. VS, GMANews.TV