Remittances rose by 6.8% in August

Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFW) continued to rise in August, helping sustain consumer demand that drives the local economy, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

BSP officials said that, despite the weakness in the global economy, more cash from abroad entered the country due to sustained demand for Filipino labor overseas.

“The steady deployment of OFWs remained one of the key drivers of growth in remittance flows,” the BSP said in a statement.

Citing data released on Wednesday, the central bank said that cash remittances reached $1.918 billion in August, an increase of 6.8 percent over the same month last year. This brought the year-to-date figure to $14.545 billion—up 5.9 percent year on year.

The cash sent in by land-based OFWs grew by 5.5 percent. About 75 percent of the workers held contracts of at least one year. Government officials consider the length of OFW contracts to be a good indicator for the sustainability of remittances.

Also, cash transfers made by sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, grew by 7.4 percent year on year.

Major sources of remittances were the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada and Japan.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the BSP reported that job orders for Filipino labor continued to grow in August, further strengthening the flow of remittances.

In the eight months to August, approved job orders reached 542,367, of which 39 percent were for posts in the services, production, professional and technical sectors. Job orders mainly came from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Qatar.

The POEA also reported that workers with processed contracts reached 1.164 million in the first semester of 2013.