MANILA – Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos continued to increase in September 2012, rising by 6 percent year-on-year to reach $2 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Officer-in-Charge Nestor Espenilla, Jr. said yesterday.

This brought cumulative remittances for the first three quarters of the year to $17.3 billion, higher by 5.7 percent than the level posted during the same period in 2011, Espenilla said.

Remittance flows in January-September 2012 consisted primarily of personal transfers from both land-based overseas Filipino workers with work contracts of one year or more (which grew by 3.4 percent) as well as sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts (which increased by 13.1 percent).

Meanwhile, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks rose by 5.9 percent in September — exceeding $1.8 billion, the highest monthly level recorded thus far.

On a cumulative basis, fund transfers for the first nine months of the year totaled $15.6 billion, registering a 5.5 percent expansion from the year-ago level.

By type of worker, cash remittances from sea-based and land-based workers during the January-September 2012 period increased by 12.9 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

By source country, the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the U.K., United Arab Emirates, and Singapore remained the top sources of cash remittances. Aggregate flows from these countries represented more than three-fourths (78.3 percent) of the total cash remittances coursed through banks.

In particular, preliminary reports by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration indicated that for the period January-October, a total of 262,444 job orders were processed largely for service, production, and professional, technical and related personnel.

The job orders are mainly intended for employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Taiwan.

The POEA also reported that workers with processed contracts and those awaiting deployment reached1,276,620 in January-July 2012, higher by 8.9 percent than the level recorded in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, higher transfers of OFs to their beneficiaries whose properties were damaged by the heavy monsoon rains (Habagat) and typhoon (Helen) that hit the country in August this year could have also contributed to the sustained rise in remittances.*PNA

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