Remittance sent by Filipino workers up 21.9 percent
Afp, Manila
Cash transfers by the Philippines' large overseas work force rose 21.9 percent from a year earlier to 5.9 billion dollars in the five months to May, the central bank said Friday. May remittances grew 8.4 percent from the previous year to 1.2 billion dollars, it said in a statement. The robust five-month increase was "due largely to technological innovations introduced by financial institutions that serve as conduits for remittance transfers," central bank governor Amando Tetangco said in the statement. The slower advance in May was mainly due to the "base effect" following a sharp increase in the same period last year. However, the central bank said preliminary data show deployments of Filipino workers abroad slowed by 4.4 percent from the year-ago level to 457,531 in January-May. But Tetangco said that over the medium term, deployments would recover as the Middle East, Brunei, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore "employ more skilled overseas workers to meet the demands of their growing economies."
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