Filipinos send home record USD 1.8-B in Oct 2011

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos sent home $1.8 billion in Oct, a record high in monthly remittances, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

This brings the remittances for the January to october period to $16.5 billion, a 7% increase compared to the same period last year.

The top 10 sources of remittances are the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Italy, Germany and Norway.

Crisis in west, typhoons

The financial and economic crisis in the west was expected to hit the amount overseas Filipino workers send home.

The strong performance of remittances, however, show otherwise.

“Despite the challenges posed by global economic and financial headwinds, the continued strong demand for Filipino workers abroad, particularly skilled manpower, provided support for the stream of remittance flows over the 10-month period,” the BSP said in a statement.

The BSP also cited deployment data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

In January to November,  approved job orders rose to 645,775, an 11.6% increase in the same period last year. Bulk of these processed job orders were from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Taiwan, Kuwait and Hong Kong.

The BSP added that typhoons Quiel and Pedring in the latter part of Sept. 2011 may have also prompted Filipinos abroad to send more cash to their affected family and other beneficiaries here.