OFW remittances up by 6.2 percent

MANILA, Philippines - Remittances rose 6.2 percent last year to a new peak over 2013 levels on strong demand for Filipino workers abroad, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Cash and non-cash remittances, which reached $26.924 billion at the end of 2014 from $25.351 billion in 2013, were a new record high, the central bank said.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the BSP said 1.6 million Filipinos were deployed last year, while job orders increased by 10.7 percent to 878,609.

About 43.6 percent of these job orders were for service, production, professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and Qatar, the central bank said.

Cash remittances went up 5.8 percent to $24.308 billion last year from $22.968 billion in 2013, also a new high for the annual sum. The growth rate surpassed the central bank’s 5.5-percent assumption for remittances in 2014.

The BSP said remittances from land-based workers totaled $18.7 billion, while those sent by sea-based workers amounted to $5.6 billion.

The bulk of the funds were sent from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada.