Sept dollar inflows beat estimates

Migrant workers sent a near-record amount of money home to their families in September, beating official estimates as more jobs opened abroad up for Filipinos.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) remittances rose 7.9 percent to $2.107 billion in September. This was the second-highest level for a single month on record.

The month that saw the highest amount of remittances was December of last year, when inflows reached $2.173 billion.

For the January to September period of 2014, remittances were up 6.1 percent over the same nine months last year.

“Remittances remained resilient on the back of sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas,” the BSP said in a statement Monday.

Cash remittances from land- and sea-based workers grew by 5.4 percent to $13.5 billion and 8.3 percent to $4.2 billion, respectively, in January to September. The bulk of cash remittances (80 percent) came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.

Cash transfers from OFWs are the biggest source of dollar income for the Philippine economy. These remittances support the value of the peso by ensuring a steady supply of dollars in the country. Foreign currencies are needed to allow businesses and the government to do business with the rest of the world. These involve transactions such as debt amortizations and payments for imports, such as oil and food.

Without a steady stream of dollars, dollars would have to be bought from abroad, which would send the peso’s value lower. Last year, remittances accounted for about 8 percent of domestic output.

Remittances remained resilient on the back of sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas. Based on preliminary reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for the period January-September 2014, job orders reached 680,392.

Of the total, 43.1 percent were processed job orders intended for service, production and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar.

Moreover, the network of bank and non-bank remittance channels established worldwide, and the efforts of service providers to expand financial services to cater to the various needs of OFWs, facilitated the inflow of foreign currency.

As of end-September 2014, the number of commercial banks’ established tie-ups, remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches or representative offices abroad totaled 4,587, four percent higher than the level as of end-September 2013.