1Q remittances increase by 6.8 percent

Remittances by nonresident workers in the Northern Marianas jumped by $1.3 million in the first quarter of the year to $21.8 million compared with the $20.4 million posted during the same period last year.

Records obtained from the Banking and Insurance Division of the Commerce Department indicated that the 6.8 percent growth in money transfer activities during the first three months of 2004 was spurred by the increase in the dollar remittances of Chinese workers in the CNMI.

These workers, mostly concentrated in the apparel industry, remitted $7.2 million during the January-March 2004 period, an increase of more than half a million from the year-ago figure of $6.72 million. The increase, which translates to 7.5 percent, was also due to the increase in the number of remittance centers for the Chinese market on Saipan.

According to the banking division, Chinese workers in the CNMI remitted $24.7 million to the People’s Republic of China in 2003.

In the first quarter of 2004, the Commerce Department noted an increase in the dollar remittance activities, which totaled $21.8 million compared with $20.4 million in the first quarter of 2003.

The first quarter figure for 2004 was also higher than the total posted in the fourth quarter of 2003 by almost 2.7 percent or at least $500,000 more than the last quarter of the previous year.

Remittance volume to the Philippines also increased by 8.4 percent compared with the remittances in the first quarter of 2003’s $13.4 million. In 2003, Filipino nonresident workers remitted a total of $54.6 million to their home country. For the first quarter of the year, Filipino nonresident workers remitted over $14.4 million to the Philippines.

Since 1997, the CNMI Department of Commerce has reported an increasing trend in the amount of greenbacks being remitted out of the Northern Marianas, with the quarterly average reaching $19 million in 2001.

Average quarterly remittances consistently climbed from 1997 to 2001, as the amount of greenbacks sent out of the CNMI during the five-year period totaled $326.4 million.

From a modest quarterly average of $13.1 million in 1997, the figure shot up to $14.72 million the following year; $16.27 million in 1999; and reached $18.32 million in 2000 before soaring higher to $19.17 million in 2001.

In the period covering 1996 to 1999, the Commerce Department reported an average 9.7 percent annual growth rate in total remittances by both resident and nonresident workers in the Northern Marianas.

In 1999, Filipino overseas workers throughout the world remitted about $7 billion to the Philippines. For the whole of 1999, remittances by nonresident workers in the CNMI reached more than $65 million, which was higher by at least $7 million from the figures registered during the previous year.