OFW remittances up by 6% to $2B in April

MANILA, Philippines — Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) reached $2 billion last April amid the sustained demand for high-skilled workers in other countries.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported that personal remittances, which support the domestic spending that has fueled the country’s economic rise, rose 7 percent year-on-year. This brought the year-to-date total to $7.7 billion, higher by 6.4 percent over the same four-month period last year.

“Remittances remained robust on the back of sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower in various countries worldwide,” the BSP said in a statement.

The BSP cited data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, which reported that out of the 367,738 job orders for the January to March period, about 30 percent were for relatively high-paying positions.

“The job orders are mainly intended for employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Hong Kong.

The United States remained the biggest source of remittances, followed by Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Japan. Remittances from workers in these countries made up 75.9 percent of the total that entered the country.

If analyzed by the type of workers that send funds, remittances from land-based OFWs with at least year-long contracts made up about three-fourths of the total. Remittances from workers with short-term contracts made up 9.4 percent of the total.

The BSP said the expansion of remittance centers abroad, as a result of tie-ups between banks and other financial institutions, continues to make it easier for OFWs to send funds to the Philippines, support the growth of remittance levels.

OFW remittances are the largest source of foreign exchange income for the country. The government estimates that 10 million Filipinos have jobs overseas and send money to their families on a regular basis.

The Philippines is the fourth-largest recipient of remittances from overseas workers in the world, trailing India, China and Mexico.