By Joann Santiago
MANILA, Feb 17 (PNA) — Remittances to the Philippines proved its resiliency anew in December 2013 after it posted another record-high monthly cash level of US$ 2.2 billion, 9.1 percent higher than year-ago’s US$ 1.98 billion.
This brought the full year inflows to US$ 22.76 billion, 6.4 percent higher than year-ago’s US$ 21.39 billion, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng RwPilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed.
Growth of cash remittances or those coursed through the banks generally exceeded the central bank’s five percent target for the year except last March when it grew by three percent.
BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. attributed the strong rise of remittances to the Philippines to the 6.1 percent year-on-year increase of inflows from land-based workers who have work contracts of one year or more.
Similarly, growth of remittances from land-based and sea-based workers with short-term contracts posted a higher level of 7.8 percent.
Bulk of the inflows came from United States, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada and Japan.
Tetangco said remittances account to 8.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year.
“The solid growth of remittances from OFs (overseas Filipinos) remains supportive of economic activity,” he said.
He explained that strong demand for Filipino workers by countries like in the Middle East continue to drive remittance growth.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the central bank chief said deployed OFWs in 2013 totalled to 1.8 million.
Approved job orders last year totalled to 793,415, and 40.9 percent of these are for services, production, and professional, technical, and related workers.
The job orders are for the manpower requirements of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Qatar.
Aside from continued increase of OFW deployment expansion of Philippine banks’ partnership with remittance firms overseas also drive the rise in remittance inflows.
As of end of last year, Philippine banks total tie-ups with overseas remittance centers and correspondent banks reached 4,740. (PNA)