MANILA - Money sent home to the Philippines by millions of Filipinos working abroad soared 17.1 percent from a year earlier to a record $1.4 billion in October, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.

Remittances for the 10 months to October grew 15.2 percent to $11.9 billion, a BSP statement said.

The money transfers correspond to about one-tenth of the country's economic output and have pushed the peso to eight-year highs against the dollar.

The record October surge coincided with a 3.9 percent rise in worker deployments to 88,058 for the month, it said.

Some eight million Filipinos, or nearly a 10th of the population, work abroad. Some 915,333 have deployed abroad so far this year for short-term work contracts, the bank added.

Classified by type, the number of land-based workers rose by 10.7 percent to 64,066 in October while the number of deployed sea-based workers contracted by 10.7 percent to 23,992.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said the decline in the number of sea-based workers was traced partly to the delay in the workers' visa issued by host countries and increasing competition from workers from other countries.

The increase in the deployment of land-based workers in October moderated the year-to-date contraction to only 1.1 percent to reach 915,333.

Major sources of remittances are United States, United Kingdom, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.*AFP

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