Overseas Filipino remittances hit record-high $2.062B in Oct.

Money sent home by Filipinos who live and work overseas reached a record high in October, driven by seasonal trends and sustained deployment of workers abroad. 

 

In a report Monday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said cash remittances – money sent through banks and transfer agents – grew at annual rate of 7.0 percent to reach $2.062 billion in October, the highest amount of monthly transfer on record. 

 

Remittances in October also grew at the fastest rate since the 8 percent recorded in January. 

 

Seasonal trends “largely” caused the surge in remittance inflow in October, Ildemarc Bautista, research head at Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., said in phone interview Monday. 

 

“Ordinarily, the fourth quarter marks the highest remittance flow for the year. It just shows the long-running trend that the fourth quarter will see the highest remittance flow,” he said.

 

In the 10-months to October, remittances totaled $18.542 billion, up 6 percent annually or above the central bank's 5 percent forecast for the year.

 

For the whole of 2012, cash remittances grew 6.3 percent to $21.391 billion in 2012.

 

“On top of that, there was the Bohol earthquake that month and sustained deployment of workers overseas,” Bautista said, noting that Filipinos “typically” send more money back home following a calamity. 

 

On October 15, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake rocked Bohol province in Central Visayas, killing 222 people and damaging 73,000 structures. 

 

"Sustained demand for skilled and professional Filipino manpower overseas supported the steady rise in remittances for the first ten months of the year," Bangko Sentral noted in a statement. 

 

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed the approved orders for services, production and technical jobs overseas in the January to October rose 39.73 percent year-on-year. 

 

The major sources of money transfers in October were the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada, and Japan. 

 

Personal remittances – which include transfers in cash and in kind through banks and hand-carried deliveries – totaled $2.282 billion in October, up 8.8 percent year-on-year.

 

Personal remittances in January to October grew by 6.8 percent to $20.452 billion, central bank data showed. – VS/TJD, GMA News