Philippine 2008 remittances hit $16.4b

Despite the global financial crisis, remittances from Filipinos working abroad in 2008 beat expectations to rise by 13.7 percent compared to the previous year, the central bank said Monday.
Workers sent home 16.4 billion dollars last year, a figure that exceeded the central bank's target of 16.3 billion dollars.
For the month of December remittances hit 1.4 billion dollars, an increase of 0.8 percent over the same period in 2007, the central bank said in a statement.
The major sources of remittances in 2008 were the United States, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.