PHL payments surplus widens despite drop in OFW remittances

(Updated 5:59) Despite a drop in remittances by overseas Filipino workers during the first four months of the year, the Philippines managed to double its balance of payments surplus on strong investment returns from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas placements abroad and foreign exchange operations. Foreign borrowings by the national government also helped offset the slowdown OFW remittances, the BSP said Thursday. It said the BOP surplus totaled $4.577 billion in the January-April period, or $2.288 billion wider than the P2.289 billion recorded a year earlier. The BOP is the difference between foreign exchange inflows and outflows in terms of the country’s transactions with the rest of the world. In April alone, the payments surplus widened to $1.084 billion or by 7 percent more than the $1.013 billion in April 2010, the Bangko Sentral said. Around $2.75 billion in proceeds came from two sets of bonds offered in the global market earlier this year. Peso-denominated bonds due in 2036 brought in $1.25 billion while 15-year global denominated bonds added $1.5 billion more. The national government sold the bonds to address the budget deficit. Overseas remittances totaled $4.49 billion in the first quarter, higher than what was recorded in the same period last year, but at a slower pace because of disruptions from the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa and the March 11 disaster in Japan. The BSP has downgraded its projected growth of OFW remittances this year to 7 percent or $20.1 billion instead of 8 percent or $20.2 billion. — ELR/VS, GMA News