Remittances of overseas Filipinos up 7.1% to $2.3B in July this year

Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy September 15, 2014

Written by  Tribune Wires
Tuesday, 16 September 2014 00:00

 

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos rose by 7.1 percent year-on-year to $2.3 billion in July 2014.

 

On a cumulative basis, personal remittances reached $15 billion in January to July 2014, up by 6.4 percent relative to the level registered in the same period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.

 

The continued expansion in personal remittances during the first seven months of 2014 was mainly due to the steady increase in remittance flows from both land-based workers with long-term contracts (by five percent) and sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts (by 8.4 percent).

 

Likewise, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks grew by six percent year-on-year to $2.1 billion in July 2014.

 

This brought cash remittances for the period January to July 2014 to $13.5 billion, higher by 5.8 percent than the $12.7 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2013.

 

In particular, cash remittances from land-based and sea-based workers rose by five percent (to $10.3 billion) and 8.5 percent (to $3.2 billion), respectively.

 

The bulk of cash remittances (about 79 percent) came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Canada and Hong Kong.

 

Remittances remained robust on the back of stable demand for skilled Filipinos abroad.

 

Latest data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that for January to July 2014, job orders reached 540,037, of which 41.1 percent were processed job orders intended for service, production, and professional, technical and related employment in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar.

 

Meanwhile, the continued efforts of bank and non-bank remittance service providers to expand their international and domestic market coverage through tie-ups and establishment of remittance centers abroad provided support to the sustained flow of remittances.