MANILA – Cash transfers to the Philippines by citizens working abroad hit $15 billion in the 11 months to November 2008, topping the 2007 full-year figure despite a global economic slowdown, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.

November remittances rose 10.5 percent from a year earlier to $1.3 billion, a central bank statement said.

This raised the cumulative total for the first 11 months of the year to $15 billion, 15.1 percent higher than the year-earlier level, it added.

The full-year remittance level reached a record $14.4 billion in 2007.

"The steady stream of remittances from overseas Filipinos continues to provide the economy with much needed foreign exchange liquidity in the midst of a challenging external environment," BSP governor Amando Tetangco said in the statement.

If the workers remitted at least $1.3 billion in the last month of 2008 the central bank projection of $16.3 billion in for the entire year would have been achieved, he added.

Even though several hundred Filipinos have been laid off and sent home late last year by semiconductor factories in Taiwan, Tetangco said there was continued demand for Filipino workers abroad, specifically professional and skilled workers.

Some 1.22 million Filipinos went to work abroad in the 11 months to November 2008, up 24.4 percent from the same period in 2007, the BSP said, citing labor department data.

"While there are concerns that deployment could decelerate in the coming months due to the continuing global economic slowdown, the (labor department) indicated that the decline could be mitigated by strong labor demand in Canada, Bulgaria, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar," it added.*AFP

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