Overseas money remittances are expected to continuously grow despite a slow start this year.
Banking giant HSBC said that the money sent to the Philippines through banks is expected to continue to grow after posing a record high in December 2017, reported The Manila Times.
Cash remittances through banks hit an all-time high of $2.7 billion in December, which brought the 2017 total to $29.060 billion.
Personal remittances also posed a record-high of $3 billion, bringing a full-year result of $31.3 billion.
HSBC also noted that the weak peso would push remittance rate to 5-percent growth in 2018, higher than the 4.3% record from 2017.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is set to release data on January remittance inflows this week.
“We expect [cash] remittances to expand 5.1 percent y-o-y (year-on-year) in January,” HSBC said.
HSBC, however, noted that the “downside risks persist given the Duterte administration’s proposal to ban OFWs from going to Kuwait due to recent abuse and maltreatment cases.”
BSP deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said that the deployment ban is not expected to have big effects on the remittance inflows.
“Filipinos continue to be very useful to them (OFW host countries),” he declared.
