Close to eight million Filipino nurses, IT experts, domestic helpers and seafarers abroad sent 4.52 billion dollars back home in the seven months to July, an increase of six percent from 4.26 billion dollars in the same period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Monday.


BSP Governor Rafael Buenaventura said he was counting on increased money remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this year to offset a slowdown in foreign direct investments and export earnings.


The BSP said the July-September quarter was usually slow for OFW income remittances, which normally peak during the Christmas season up to the early months of the following year and again during the school-payment months of May and October.