4Q remittances up 5%

Buoyed by the increased volume of transactions made by Filipinos during the holidays, remittances for the fourth quarter of 2000 jumped over five percent to close to $20 million.

Records from the Banking and Insurance Division of the Department of Commerce showed that overall remittances in the last three months of last year reached $19.9 million as opposed to the previous year of the same period’s $18.9 million.

Aside from the Christmas season, officials also attribute the increase in dollar remittances for the October-December period to the sharp fall of the peso’s value against the dollar.

The peso broke the P50-$1 barrier at the height of the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada in December last year.

Filipinos regularly send greenback to families back home during the Christmas season, where it has always been celebrated with grandiose and festivities.

Filipinos continue to hold the largest market in the CNMI’s foreign exchange sector as they sent out more than $36 million in total greenback to the Philippines in the first nine months of last year.

Business analysts said the escalating value of the United States dollar against the Philippine peso is driving Filipino workers to remittance centers to apparently take advantage of their earnings’ stronger buying power when sent to their families back home.

In fact, remittance companies that cater to the huge Filipino community on the islands reported bigger volume of workers from the Philippines have been trooping their centers since the peso started slipping beyond P50 per $1 last year.

Officials said the continued depreciation of the Philippine peso against the United States dollar encouraged Filipino workers to send more of their hard-earned greenback home.

Increases in remittances are always experienced during the fourth quarter of every year. In 1999, remittances in the last quarter surged 24 percent to over $19 million from more than $16 million in the third quarter.

Far East Financial Company topped the remittance returns for the fourth quarter with a total of $4,062,846. It was followed by Pinoy Express (PX-Saipan), Inc. with $3,844,081. While, PNB Corporation closed the top three with dollar remittances of $3,419,901.

The Banking and Insurance Division report showed that remittance company, Asia Pacific Medical Corporation did not submit figures for the whole of 2000. Winfield Corporation, on the other hand, did not have a remittance report for the fourth quarter.