Remittances from overseas Filipino workers totalled $1.3 billion in February, up 4.9 percent from a year ago, the Philippine central bank said on Wednesday.

The inflows in February was slightly higher than $1.266 billion in January when annual growth in remittances was just 0.1 percent.

The central bank has said remittances, a key pillar of the domestic economy, will likely stay flat this year from 2008's $16.4 billion total. But a Reuters poll of 10 economists last month showed 2009 remittances were expected to fall 6 percent from 2008.