Manila  - Dollar remittances from overseas Filipinos rose 15.95 per cent in February as more highly skilled workers gained employment outside the Philippines, the government said Tuesday.

The central bank said a total of 1.25 billion dollars were remitted in February 2008, higher than 1.08 billion dollars in February 2007.

The February remittances brought to 2.52 billion dollars the total amount sent home by overseas Filipinos for the first two months of 2008, up 15.46 per cent from the same period last year.

"The continued strong growth in remittances could be attributed in part to the observed rise in the number of deployed skilled, and therefore higher paid, Filipino overseas workers," the bank said.

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the number of deployed overseas workers for the first two months of the year rose 14.6 per cent to 199,378 from 174,046 a year ago.

Last year, a total of 14.44 billion dollars were remitted by more than eight million overseas Filipinos, helping boost the local currency. (dpa)