Remittances of overseas Filipino workers decreased by 0.8% or PHP230 million last year as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, which resulted to job loss for some.
In a data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday, it said that cash remittances through banks was at $29.903 billion compared to the $30.133 billion in 2019.
This is considered the “worst” since 1999 or more than two decades ago where contraction was logged at -18.3% and -0.3% in 2001.
However, the central bank says the decline was better than the two percent contraction it forecasted for the full year
BSP said inflows from economies such as Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany and Kuwait declined last year.
There was a noted increase, however, in the money sent by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) located in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Security Bank Corp. Chief Economist Robert Dan Roces said countries like Saudi Arabia, which previously had a strong origin in terms of remittances, faltered due to work stoppage and sending workers home.
Roces further said that countries like the United States, their policies of fiscal support injection has allowed OFWs to continue sending remittances to their families in the Philippines.
According the data of BSP, the United States had a 39.9% share of total remittances in 2020.
The 78.6% of the total inflows in the country were from the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, and South Korea.
This year, the situation may imorove.
The BSP projects cash remittance to grow by four percent on the back of an expected global economic recovery.
ING Bank N.V. Manila Senior Economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa projected that remitrances will see a “moderate growth this year” as the peso strengthens and more sea-based workers are deployed. (ES)
