Remittances from overseas Filipino workers are expected to drop to 4 percent as a result of the global slowdown, the latest study of a technical group of the World Bank said.

This is lower than the World Bank group's projected fall of 5 to 8 percent in remittance flows to developing countries covered in the study, which was released Monday.

A reversal from an estimated growth of 8.8 percent in 2008, the latest outlook was bleaker than the previous forecast of 0.9 to 5.7 percent decline in remittance flows made by the same technical group in November.

Uncertainty over the duration and depth of the global financial crisis, volatile exchange rates and possible tightening of immigration controls in crisis-hit countries pose upside risks to the current outlook, the report said.

Remittances to developing countries were likely to fall to $280 billion-$290 billion this year from an estimated $305 billion in 2008, the report said.

"This decline in nominal dollar terms is small relative to the projected fall in private capital flows or official aid to developing countries," Dilip Ratha and Sanket Mohapatra of the World Bank's migration and remittances team said in an informal briefing note.

"However, considering that remittances registered double-digit annual growth in the past few years, an outright fall in the level of remittance flows as projected now will cause hardships in many poor countries."

Remittance flows were expected to be largely flat next year at $280 billion-$299 billion.