Remittances by overseas Filipinos exceeds $10b mark

Dollar remittances from overseas Filipinos rose 16.6 per cent in the first 10 months of the year, exceeding 10 billion dollars, the government said Friday.

The central bank said remittances from January to October totalled 10.3 billion dollars, compared with 8.83 billion dollars in the same period last year.

In October alone, remittances grew by 36.7 per cent to 1.19 billion dollars from 867,182 million dollars in the same month last year.

“The level of remittances in October is a high for the year to date,” the central bank said in a statement.

It added that the cumulative level was only about 2 billion dollars less than the amount of remittances that was expected to be coursed through the banking system for the whole of 2006.

The cental bank attributed the continued increase in remittances on the high demand for Filipino workers abroad and the “financial system’s provision of innovative remittance services.”

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, 962,025 Filipinos left to work abroad from January to October, up 12.7 per cent from the same 10-month period last year.

In October alone, 89,543 Filipinos found work overseas, the administration said.

The strong remittances have been a key factor in the strengthening of the peso, which has recently rose to four-year highs against the dollar.

The central bank said the main sources of dollar remittances from abroad were the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Britain, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Taiwan.

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