MONEY SENT HOME BY PINOYS ABROAD TOPPED $12 B FROM JAN TO AUG
MANILA, OCTOBER 16, 2010 (GMANEWS TV) Money sent home by Filipinos abroad topped $12 billion from January to August on unabated global demand for manpower, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. reported Friday.
Tetangco said remittances from overseas Filipinos reached $12.181 billion in the first eight months, up by 7.4 percent in the same period last year.
For August alone, money transferred to the country amounted to $1.502 billion, the highest monthly record this year, he added. August remittances were $170 million higher than the $1.332 billion booked in the similar month a year earlier.
Tetangco said money sent home by sea-based workers rose by 11.3 percent while that of land-based workers went up by 6.5 percent.
"Even as the pace of global economic recovery remains uneven, remittances from overseas Filipinos remained steady due to the diverse skills of deployed workers and their geographical distribution across the globe, continued increase in demand for skilled Filipinos abroad, and efficient network of bank and non-bank remittance channels worldwide to service the remitters' needs," BSP Deputy Gov. Nestor Espenilla Jr. said.
The BSP said the main sources of overseas Filipino remittances include the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Kingdom, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Italy, and Germany.
Meanwhile, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) data revealed that the total number of deployed overseas workers rose to 787,777 in the first eight months of the year from 745,147 in the same period last year.
The number of new hires with processed contracts awaiting deployment increased to 252,443 in the first eight months of the year from 246,637 in the same period last year, added POEA.
The number of job orders surged to 478,400 from January to September this year covering services, professionals, technical as well as production and related workers.
According to Espenilla, the sustained demand for skilled Filipino workers would be supported by the signing of several hiring agreements between the Philippine government and other countries.
"The global remittance network of banks and non-banks also continue to widen through strategic alliances and tie-ups," he pointed out.
The Monetary Board had earlier agreed to waive the fees imposed on banks that use the Philippine Payments and Settlements System remit system for six months as part of the government's efforts to bring down the cost of sending money by OFWs.
OFW families are expected to save at least P92 million to as high as P922 million due to the faster and cheaper delivery of remittances to the beneficiaries at a lower rate. - JE/OMG, GMANews.TV
----------------------------------------------------------
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2007 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
-----------------------------------------
Lily (Lee) Quesada
Email: leeq@sympatico.ca
leequesada@hotmail.com
www.newsflash.org
"I used to have a life, now I have a computer."
----------------------------------------------------------
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------
