Save and invest.
This is the advice of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to families of OFWs who have received or are about to receive their remittances this holiday season.
BSP Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila Jr. said they are expecting an upsurge in the trend of remittances by December 2019 as what happened to last year too.
“Dapat magplano mabuti ang pamilya. Di naman panghabangbuhay makakatanggap ng remittances,” Dakila said in an interview over dzmm.
“Dapat may enough savings, madala ito sa isang pagkakakitaan,” he added.
Last year, he said, Filipinos abroad sent US$ 2.75 billion to their families and friends in October. Then, in December 2018, overseas capital pumped into the economy was recorded at $3.17 billion.
Last October this year, OFW remittances registered highest at US$2.969 billion — which is 7.7 percent increase from the same period of last year.
If the same trend continues, the BSP is expecting that the remittances for December would hit the US$3 billion mark as well.
Dakila said OFW remittances have been contributing roughly less than 10 percent to the Philippine gross domestic product for the past five years.
And they are expecting that the trend will be continue at an average annual growth rate of 3 percent for this year and in 2020.
“Mas maganda na po ang skills (ng mga pinapadala nating workers) ngayon kumpara noong nakaraang taon…Kung titignan ang mga nangyari sa advanced economies, population tumatanda, Kailangan ng workers especially nagtatrabaho sa health sector,” the BSP deputy governor explained.
The top sources of remittances are from the United States (37.6%), Saudi Arabia (7.2%), Singapore (6.3%) and Japan (5.6%). Other sources of remittances are the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and Kuwait.
Dakila noted a decrease in remittance from Hong Kong, now pegged at 2.6% of the total remittance share, because of the ongoing uncertainty in the Chinese territory’s economy due to the pro-democracy protests by student activists against the government.
