Remittances up 5.4% yoy in May ’15

MANILA, July 15 (PNA) — Remittances of Filipino workers overseas rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in May this year, slightly higher than the government’s 5 percent full-year target.

Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Wednesday showed that cash remittances in the fifth month this year reached USD 2.1 billion as against the USD 1.9 billion same month in 2014.

In the first five months of the year, inflows totaled to USD 9.91 billion, 5.4 percent higher than the USD 9.4 billion same period last year.

Bulk of these came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK), Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.

This, as demand for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) remain robust.

Initial Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) data show that total job orders to date reached 386,163 and most of these are requirements of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and UAE.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. attributed the growth of remittances to higher inflows from land-based workers with contracts of at least a year, which grew by 5.9 percent year-on-year, and those from both land-based and sea-based workers who have contracts of less than a year, 4.1 percent.

Another booster of remittance growth is higher tie-ups between Philippine banks and remittance firms with their counterparts overseas, he added.