By Kris M. Crismundo
MANILA, May 15 (PNA) — Remittances of Filipino workers overseas in March 2015 posted the highest growth in 15 months, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
BSP reported that remittances of overseas Filipinos (OFs) in March 2015 grew by 11 percent to USD 2.3 billion compared to the same period last year.
This pushed total remittances in first quarter of the year to increase by 5.1 percent from last year to USD 6.4 billion.
“The continued increase in personal remittances during the quarter was driven by robust inflows from both land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more (5.3 percent), as well as sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year (6.1 percent),” the BSP said.
“Remittances remained strong partly on account of sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas,” the central bank said.
According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), approved job orders in the first quarter this year reached 243,045, about 31 percent of which were jobs in sectors of service, production, and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, cash remittances from OFs through banks also increased by 11.3 percent to USD 2.1 billion in March 2015 while aggregate cash remittances for the quarter also grew by 5.5 percent to USD 5.8 billion.
“The initiatives of banks and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through tie-ups abroad as well as the introduction of innovations in their remittance products continued to provide support to the steady flow of remittances,” the BSP said.
“As of end-March 2015, commercial banks’ established tie-ups, remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches/representative offices abroad reached 4,840 from 4,771 in the comparable period in 2014,” it said. (PNA)