September remittances remain robust despite global malaise
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/17/2008 4:56 PM
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Despite global concerns on the economic performance of various developed countries that are hosts to overseas Filipino workers (OFW), remittances to the Philippines remained robust in September when it reached $1.33 billion, a 16.9 percent increase compared to the same month last year, the central bank said Monday.
This brings the total remittance for the first nine months to $12.3 billion, up 17.1 percent from the same period in 2007. Bulk of the remittances continued to come from the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.
"Robust remittance flows have been shored up by strong overseas demand for Filipino skills, and the greater availability of expanded money transfer services to overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries," said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the central bank said the number of Filipinos deployed abroad already breached the one-million mark, rising 25.9 percent year-on-year to 1.005 million in the January to September. Most of the Filipinoas who left went to countries in the Middle East and Asia.
OFW remittances is one the most watched clues of the impact of the global economic worries to the Filipinos' consumption patterns, which in turn affect our overall economic growth.
It was in mid-September when Lehman Brothers, one of the US' financial luminaries, tumbled amidst growing pressure of toxic investments to its financial future. Not long after, the financial crisis that Lehman created in the US had created a domino effect to the real economy not just of the US, but of other major and minor economies worldwide.
Currently, more than a dozen countries have announced that their economies are in recession. These countries--Japan, Singapore, Europe, and imminently, the US and Britain--are major OFW destinations.
Prospects of more employment opportunities in selected destinations such as Canada and some countries in the Middle East as well as enhanced collaboration with potential employers on skills certification and training programs are expected to help sustain the demand for overseas Filipino workers and boost remittance flows to the Philippines.
Most of the eight million Filipinos, around 10 percent of the population, who left the country went to the Middle East and Asia, the data showed. But the majority of overseas Filipinos are based in the United States, the epicentre of the worst financial crisis in 80 years.
Analysts have said steady remittances, equivalent to about a tenth of gross domestic product and an engine of consumer spending, will shield the Philippine economy from the ravages of the global crisis.
A 16 percent slide in the value of the peso against the dollar this year will boost the purchasing power of the funds sent home by overseas Filipinos.
The central bank expects remittance inflows to grow 15 percent this year from 2007 and 10 percent next year in dollar terms alone.
