Saturday 21 June 2008

Pakistan: Remittances rise over 18pc to $5.904 billion

KARACHI - Remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis continued to show a rising trend as an amount of $5,903.83 million was received in the first 11 months (July 2007-May 2008) of the current fiscal year 2007-08, showing an increase of $915.73 million or 18.36 percent over the same period of the last fiscal year. The amount of $5,903.83 million includes $2.36 million received through encashment and profit earned on Foreign Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBCs) and Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates (FCBCs).
The monthly average remittances for the period July-May, 2007-08 comes out to $536.71 million as compared to $453.46 million during the same corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 18.36 percent. [Read More]

Money remittances from abroad amounted to almost half million dollars in Moldova in first four months of 2008

MOLDPRES, 18.06.2008

The Moldovans who work abroad transferred about 475 million dollars through commercial banks in January-April 2008, against about 290 million dollars in the similar period of 2007, according to data put out by the Moldovan National Bank (BNM).

Thus, last April alone, the size of remittances was over 154 million dollars, increasing 22 per cent against the month before.

An economic analyst, Veaceslav Ionita, has told MOLDPRES that the rise of transfers leads to the appreciation of the national currency, which subsequently triggers an inflation increase. At the same time, Ionita specified that, while several years ago, the transfers were meant for consumption, presently, a half of the currency remittances represent investments in the form of money deposits.

BNM data show that more than 75 per cent of all the transfers were made through quick transfer systems, among which Western Union, Migom, Travelex, Strada Italia, Turkiye Express etc.

Last year, the value of money transferred through commercial banks was of 1.2 billion dollars, and in 2006, the Moldovans sent home about 855 million dollars.

Sunday 15 June 2008

RP April remittances up 18.35 percent on year

Reuters

Remittances from Filipinos working overseas rose 18.35 percent year-on-year in April, accelerating sharply from 9.4 percent annual growth in March, the central bank said on Friday.

Remittances for April reached $1.4 billion as workers, including nurses, IT professionals, sailors and maids, sent home money ahead of the start of the school year in June, when families need to pay for fees, books and uniforms.

Inflows in the first four months of the year amounted to $5.4 billion, 14.5 percent higher than a year ago. [More]

Saturday 7 June 2008

The Remittance Industry: El Salvador's Post-War Struggle

Written by Mneesha Gellman and Josh Dankoff
Thursday, 05 June 2008
The 12 year civil war in El Salvador, officially from 1980-1992, facilitated an exodus from the country. As part of its cold-war foreign policy, the US played a key role in prolonging the war by supporting the Salvadoran military throughout the 1980s during widespread persecution and execution of peasants, leftists, and anyone agitating for social change (or even being suspected of it).
A rampant culture of impunity, combined with poverty and desperation after the war has led to constistantly high levels of migration. Strict immigration laws have punished those looking for livelihood improvements and deportation has spawned El Salvador's serious gang problem, further trapping the country in a cycle of violence, poverty, and... more immigration. An important lynch-pin in this cycle is remittances or remesas as they are known in Spanish: money sent home by working immigrants abroad.
[Read more]

OFW dollar remittances to surpass $15B mark in ’08

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2008 | FINANCE


The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today reported to Malacanang that the global deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is on track to reach and surpass the one million mark in 2008.

This developed as a report reaching Dole Secretary Marianito D. Roque also projected that as current trends sustain, global OFW remittances would likely approach, if not surpass, the $15 billion level this year.

The latest report of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said that OFW remittances have already reached US$4.0 billion (more than P173-b at current rates) in the first quarter of 2008, with the highest month-on-month remittances reaching $1.4 billion in March, on top of $1.3 billion in February, and another $1.3 billion last January. In 2007, OFW remittances reached $14.449 billion, the highest in history so far. [Read more]