Demand for Filipino workers boosts February remittances
STEADY demand for Filipino workers abroad boosted remittance levels to $1.5 billion in February, 6.2 percent higher than the same period last year.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the development also reflected increased remittances from sea-based and land-based workers for the two-month period, which is at 12.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.
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As a result, total remittances for the first two months of the year totaled $3 billion, representing a growth of 6.9 percent.
Sustained inflows were sourced mainly from the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Italy.
Remittances from these countries accounted for more than four-fifths (80.2 percent) of the total transfer of funds reported by local banks.
Tetangco attributed the rise in remittance flows from fresh demand for Filipino manpower abroad.
Citing figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), around 43,360 job orders for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers were processed from January-March 2011.
This was in response to the manpower requirements in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Taiwan.
Data from the POEA also showed that the total number of deployed overseas workers for the period January-November 2010 grew by 2.7 percent to 1,363,083 from 1,326,619 in the same period a year ago.
Of the total deployed overseas workers, more than three-fourths were land-based, more than 70 percent of which were rehired workers. The leading destinations of the land-based workers (new hires and rehires) were Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hong Kong, Qatar and Singapore.
These positive developments continue to underpin the resilience of remittances, notwithstanding the ongoing political conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, and natural calamities in Japan, Tetangco said.
Government efforts on the redeployment of displaced OFWs are being carried out through the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) Task Force Middle East.
"Remittances are projected to remain strong, as the ongoing crises are expected to have limited impact on the overall remittance flows while other labor markets may take up the slack in overseas employment," Tetangco noted.
Last year, remittances reached $18.76 billion, up almost 8.2 percent from 2009's $17.35 billion.
The BSP earlier said it will revisit the eight percent goal for 2011 amid negative developments in the Middle East and massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
But University of the Philippines economist Benjamin Diokno said the latest figures are still below pre-global financial crisis levels, where it normally posted double-digit gains.
