OFWs’ remittances hit $11.3B in first semester of 2012

Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) reached $11.3 billion for the first six months of 2012, up 5.3 percent from the figure registered for the same period last year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) revealed.

Remittances from overseas Filipinos sent for June 2012 alone totaled $2 billion.

The amount was 4.2 percent higher for the same period a year ago.

Increases in remittances were from land-based workers (2.7 percent) and sea-based and land-based workers with contracts of less than a year (13.7 percent).

Remittances of OFWs coursed through banks totaled $10.1 billion. This is 5.2 percent higher than total amount sent for the same period last year.
Land-based workers sent a total of $7.8 billion while their sea-based counterparts sent home $2.3 billion.

The money sent by land-based and sea-based OFWs increased by 2.8 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively. There are estimated 11 million OFWs in 193 countries.

More than eight million of them are sea-based, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

Filipinos in the United States sent 42 percent of those amount followed by Canada, 9.6 percent; Saudi Arabia, 7.6 percent; Japan, five percent; UK, 4.8 percent; Singapore, 4.2 percent; and UAE, 4.1 percent.

According to BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco, the Philippines can expect a continuous rise in remittances sent by OFWs as the POEA said the number of Filipinos deployed abroad has increased by 14.8 percent from 1.470 million to 1.687 million. –Ed Velasco, Daily Tribune