MANILA - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) may raise its remittance growth forecast this year as the global economy begins to show signs of recovery from the crisis.

According to BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., the country's remittance inflows may breach the $16.4 billion mark this year, contrary to the central bank's initial flat-growth projection.

"Remittances have been very resilient. If there is an improvement in the global economy just as many people are predicting now, that should help further support remittances for 2009," Tetangco told reporters on Monday.

Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers reached $8.459 billion for the first 6 months of the year, a 2.9% rise from $8.241 billion recorded in the same period in 2008. For the month of June alone, remittances hit a record $1.498 billion.

The government has constantly assured that the $16-billion volume of remittances last year will be maintained in 2009 amid the crisis, but most analysts continue to expect a decline in remittances this year.

For instance, a Reuters poll late last month showed that economists are looking at a 0.5% drop in remittances this year. Although more pessimistic than BSP's forecast, this is already a huge improvement from the -5% and -6% growth forecasts generated by the poll previously.

Tetangco said the BSP may also revise its 2009 projection for the country's balance of payments (BOP) given the expected change in their remittance growth forecast. Earlier, the BSP said it is expecting a BOP surplus of $700 million.