Inquirer
Last updated 03:22am (Mla time) 01/27/2007
DOLLARS sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) through banks and other channels likely reached an all-time high of $14 billion in 2006, according to a new central bank estimate.
An earlier projection of the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), had placed OFW money inflows at $13.4 billion in 2006, from roughly $12.0 billion in 2005. It had expected the amount to reach $14.0 billion in 2007, including $13.5 billion through the banking system.
Now the likely 2006 total is $13-$14 billion, including $12-$13 billion coursed through the banking system, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo told reporters Friday.
At $14 billion, the amount would be about 60 percent of the BSP’s foreign exchange reserves, which surged to an all-time high of $23 billion at end-2006.
In 2005, the BSP assumed in its computation of the balance of payments -- the measure of the country’s international financial transactions -- that 20 percent of OFW money inflows would come in through informal channels, such as OFWs’ friends and acquaintances or other travelers. This “leakage” dropped to 10 percent in 2006, and is expected to fall further to five percent this year, according to the BSP’s latest estimates.
Last November, OFW money remittances through banks exceeded $1 billion for the seventh straight month, bringing the total for the first 11 months of 2006 to a record-high $11.44 billion, up 17.6 percent from the same period in 2005.
The bulk continued to come from the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Taiwan.
Strong inflows of dollars from OFWs and from foreign portfolio investors last year helped to push the peso up by nearly eight percent against the dollar. With INQUIRER.net
http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=45948
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