Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) help personal remittances of migrant workers across the globe to rise by 6.8 percent year-on-year to USD2.8 billion in June 2017, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. said on Tuesday, August 15.
This brought personal remittances for the first semester of 2017 to USD15.4 billion, higher by 5.5 percent than the level posted in the same period a year ago.
The United States (US), UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore were the major contributors to the growth in cash remittances during the month.
The growth was boosted largely by the 5.5 percent increase in personal remittances from land-based workers with long-term contracts, whose remittances comprised 77.3 percent of total personal remittances.
It was also supported by the 1.7 percent rise in remittances from sea-based and land-based workers with short-term contracts.
The total number of deployed OFWs for the period of January-June 2017 reached 1.14 million, according to the preliminary statistics of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
(Report via PNA)
Photo credit: filipinotimes.net
