By Jun Vallecera
Reporter
THE volume of remittances from overseas Filipino workers surged past the billion-dollar level for the third time in June, allowing the six-month volume to hit $6 billion.
The 15.4-percent growth in the first six months, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said, strengthened the likelihood overall remittances this year will expand by 11 percent to at least $11.88 billion instead of just 10 percent originally.
More optimistic but private sector forecasts project the remittances this year to accelerate by 12 percent.
According to BSP governor Amando Tetangco Jr., OFW remittances in June alone lifted by 18.1 percent to $1.1 billion, just marginally lower than May’s remittances of $1.14 billion.
The only other time the remittances surged past the $1-billion barrier was in March when these reached $1.03 billion for the first time.
But more important, Tetangco said, was that the dollar earnings of millions of Filipino workers were coursed increasingly through banks, last estimated at accounting for 90 percent of the remittances.
“Remittances from OFWs coursed through commercial banks rose anew by 18.1 percent in June to reach $1.1 billion,” he noted.
He traced the sustained rise in remittance volume to increasing demand for Filipino labor abroad and to aggressive marketing efforts by commercial banks and private remittance agents in making their remittance services accessible to the growing number of overseas Filipinos.
The sustained flow also boosted hopes of achieving higher growth this year as personal consumption expenses, driven in the main by overseas remittances, were seen to account for the bulk of projected growth of some 5.5 percent in terms of the gross domestic product.
Tetangco said such optimism was not misplaced given the rise in OFW deployment hitting nearly 9 percent in June to 102,682.
OFW deployment in the first half as a result has grown by 5.1 percent to 586,819, Tetangco added, citing figures obtained from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
“The rise in deployment mirrored the increasing demand for well-trained and better-equipped Filipino seafarers given the country’s strict compliance with the standards of the International Maritime Organization,” Tetangco said.
Sea-based OFWs increased in number by 7.6 percent in June, bringing the cumulative six-month increase to 14.6 percent or 139,228 in all.
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