MANILA, Philippines -- Foreign exchange remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) grew 15.0 percent year-on-year in January to $1.3 billion, accelerating from 5.8 percent in December and 3.8 percent in November, the central bank reported Friday.

It was the 21st straight month that OFW money remittances through banks topped $1 billion, said the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The BSP said it expected OFW remittances to reach $15.7 billion this year, a fresh record but only 9.0 percent higher than the 2007 total after double-digit growths in previous years.

The high growth rates in previous years could be attributed to an increasing number of OFWs that sent money home through official channels instead of informal ones, such as personal couriers, the central bank said. Now that most OFWs send money home through banks, those rates are no longer sustainable, it said.

The remittances through the informal channels have gone down to five percent of the total inflows from 20-30 percent about two to three years ago, it said.

The big jump in the growth rate in January “could be traced in part to the acceleration in the deployment of workers,” BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said.

The OFWs deployed increased 12.4 percent in January from a year earlier, according to data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Deployment of land-based OFWs increased 12.3 percent to 88,775 and of sea-based workers, 13.2 percent to 19,804.

More than eight million Filipinos, about 10 percent of the population, work abroad as, among others, nurses, doctors, housemaids, sailors, musicians, IT professionals. The bulk of the money remittances come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia.

The BSP also reported $370.9 million in net inflows of foreign portfolio investments in stocks and bonds in February, after a net outflow of $237 million in January.

Tetangco said the net inflow reflected renewed investor confidence, due mainly to positive economic reports.

The government reported a decade-low budget deficit of P9.4 billion in 2007 and export year-on-year growth of 21.4 percent in December. Several blue-chip companies have reported strong financial results for 2007.

“Seen to have limited the magnitude of the net inflow were the continued negative reports on the US economy, soaring oil prices and domestic political concerns,” Tetangco said. With a report from Reuters; edited by INQUIRER.net