Philippines Overseas Remittances Rise In April

RTTNews.
6/15/2009 7:40 AM ET

Overseas remittances from Filipino workers rose 2.2% year-on-year in April to US$1.4 billion, as the demand for these workers continued to remain steady in other countries, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Said Monday. Over the first four months of the year, the remittances grew 2.6% to US$5.5 billion.

"Demand for Filipino workers abroad is expected to be sustained by employment opportunities gained from hiring agreements forged between the Philippines and host countries in need of Filipino manpower such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia, among others", the central Bank said.

"While weaker global economic conditions continued to pose some risk to the continued strength of the deployment of Filipino workers abroad, the Philippine government remains focused on job generation programs to help displaced overseas workers find alternative jobs in emerging markets and in countries that are not severely affected by the global financial meltdown", the central bank added.