Remittances averaged P83,000—NSO figures

FILIPINOS working abroad remitted an average of P83,000 to their families in the Philippines over a six-month period from April to September 2008, up by 10.7 percent from a year ago, according to the National Statistics Office.

In its 2008 Survey on Overseas Filipinos, the statistics office said the average remittance of Filipino workers overseas was only P75,000 during the same six-month period in 2007.

“The number of overseas Filipino workers who worked abroad at anytime during the period April to September 2008 reached 2 million as reported by their families. The 2008 estimate represents an increase of 14.6 percent over the 1.7 million OFWs estimated for the period April to September 2007,” the agency said.

The survey did not ask for the total salary received by the OFWs. “Hence, the remittances presented in the results may just be a part of the total salary received by the OFWs,” the agency said.

Overseas contract workers, or those with existing work contracts abroad, comprised 94 percent or 1.9 million of the total Filipino workers overseas, up by 16.6 percent a year earlier.–Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today