MANILA — Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos (OFs) registered an 8.2 percent year-on-year growth in October 2012 to reach $2.1 billion, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. announced Monday. On a cumulative basis, remittances totaled $19.5 billion for the first 10 months of the year, higher by 5.9 percent than the level recorded in the comparable period in 2011. Personal remittances continued to expand on the back of the 13.8 percent growth in fund transfers by sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, as well as the 3.6 percent expansion in remittances by land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with work contracts of one year or more. Meanwhile, cash remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks posted a record-high level of $1.9 billion in October, representing an increase of 8.5 percent from the year-ago figure. This brought cumulative cash transfers in January-October to $17.5 billion, higher by 5.8 percent than the level posted in the same period last year. Remittances of land-based workers, which posted grew by 3.7 percent to reach $13.5 billion in the first ten months of the year, accounted for 77 percent of total cash remittances. In addition, remittances of sea-based workers rose appreciably by 13.7 percent year-on-year to reach $4 billion during the ten-month period. More than three-fourths (78.2 percent) of the total cash remittances coursed through banks came from the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Japan, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore. Remittances remained strong despite fragile economic conditions in advanced economies and renewed geopolitical tensions in some parts of the Middle East. Remittance flows were supported by steady deployment of skilled and professional Filipino manpower abroad, combined with commercial banks' continued efforts to build up their network of remittance business partners worldwide. — SG
