Nov remittances reach record $2.286B

MANILA, Philippines – Remittances reached a monthly record of $2.286 billion in November, supported by the sustained deployment of Filipino workers abroad, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

In a statement on Wednesday, January 15, BSP said the amount was equivalent to a 9.5% growth from the $2.087 billion remittances recorded in November 2012.

This was the 8th straight month that personal remittances hit the $2-billion mark.

For the first 11 months, remittances totaled $20.6 billion, 6.1% higher than the figure for the same period of 2012.

Remittances, a significant driver of domestic consumption, account for over 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. Filipino families depend on remittances sent by family members abroad to pay for their daily needs at home.

“The steady deployment of OF workers remained the key driver of growth in remittance flows for the first 11 months of the year,” BSP stressed.

A total of 731,254 job orders from overseas were approved by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration from January to November.

Of the job orders processed, 43.2% were mostly for services, production and professional, technical and related workers.

These workers were deployed to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Qatar. – Rappler.com