Despite slowing economy amid falling oil prices in the Middle East, Filipinos based overseas in January sent hoome $2.2 billion, growing 3.2% year-on-year, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr in a statement on Tuesday, March 15.
The amount consists primarily of transfers from land-based overseas Filipino workers with contracts of one year or more, as well as seas-based and land-based workers with shorter job contracts.
Similarly, cash remittances channeled through banks amounted to $2 billion in January 2016, rising by 3.4% from the level posted a year ago. Cash remittances from both land-based ($1.6 billion) and sea-based ($447 million) workers expanded by 3% and 4.6% year-on-year, respectively.
Over 75% of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Qatar, and Japan.
The BSP indicated the remittance flows from OFWs remained resilient, underpinned by sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower for overseas jobs.
Falling oil prices, the main source of income in a number of Middle Eastern countries that employ hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, have become source of concern. However, government data showed 30.5% of 84,670 total approved job orders in January 2016 were processed for deployment in the Middle East.
The processed job orders were intended mainly to fill in demand for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates.