MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) raised its growth forecast for overseas Filipino workers’ remittances to eight percent instead of six percent this year due to the continued demand for skilled Filipino workers abroad.
BSP Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in an interview with reporters that the upward adjustment in the growth in the amount of money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was brought about by the increasing demand for skilled Filipino workers across different categories around the world.
Originally, the BSP sees OFW remittances growing by six percent this year.
However, latest data released by the central bank showed that the amount of money sent home by overseas Filipinos already went up by 7.7 percent to $2.785 billion in the first two months of the year from $2.585 billion in the same period last year due to continued strong demand for professional and skilled Filipino workers combined with favorable global employment opportunities.
Remittances from sea-based workers went up by 13.4 percent while that of land-based workers increased by 6.4 percent during the two-month period. Major sources of remittances in January and February were the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, UK, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Italy.
Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the total number of deployed overseas workers for the full year 2009 posted a year-on-year growth of 15.1 percent to 1.422 million from 1.236 million in 2008.
Of the total deployed overseas workers in 2009, more than three-fourths were land-based, of which about 68 percent were rehired workers. The number of rehired workers rose by 24.3 percent to 742,447 as a result primarily of the government’s job generation and facilitation programs to help displaced overseas workers find alternative jobs in emerging markets and in countries that are not severely affected by the global financial meltdown.
Source: Philippine star Apr 26, 2010