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By Maricel E. Burgonio and Darwin G. Amojelar Reporters
MONEY sent home by overseas
Filipino workers (OFW) further rose in February despite the decline
in the number of deployed workers, fueling government optimism that
the country could attain economic growth targets this year.
In a statement, BSP Governor
Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said OFW remittances coursed through banks
increased year on year by 22.6 percent to $2.2 billion in the
January to February period.
For February alone, remittances
grew 25.4 percent to $1.1 billion this year from $865 million last
year.
Tetangco attributed the growth to
the banks’ wider remittance network as well as to the high demand
for skilled workers.
This year, the BSP forecast
remittances would reach $14 billion.
“Financial intermediaries
continued to capture a large segment of the growing remittance
market,” Tetangco said.
He said remittances remained
strong even as the number of deployed Filipino workers recorded a
decline in the first two months this year.
Preliminary data from the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that total
deployment declined by 12.1 percent year on year to 170,072 workers.
The number of land-based and sea-based workers went down by 10.1
percent and 18.8 percent to 134,644 and 35,428, respectively.
The continued rise in OFW
remittances has emboldened the National Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA) to insist on its economic growth forecast of 6.1
percent to 6.7 percent this year.
Besides OFW money, Dennis M.
Arroyo, planning and policy director of NEDA cited investments as a
possible source of economic expansion. “The growth target may be
unusually high but we are operating under a new regime because we
have an approved budget,” he said, referring to Congress’
passage of the $1.126 trillion spending bill for this year.
Despite robust OFW money inflows,
the country’s dollar surplus dipped in March. The BSP said the
country’s balance of payments (BOP), which sums up the
Philippines’ economic transactions with the rest of the world,
reached a $1.411-billion surplus in the first three months of the
year, or lower than the $2.121-billion surplus in the same period
last year.
The BSP blamed the lower surplus
on debt prepayments the government and the central bank made during
the period. Last month, the government and the BSP prepaid a
combined $931 million in debt.
A BOP surplus is generally seen
in a positive light as it indicates that the country is generating
enough dollars to service its foreign debt and pay for its imports.
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