Overseas Filipinos who are planning to send money back home to their nearest remittance centre can have their dirhams exchanged at a rate of AED 1 = Php 14.83.
Data from Google’s exchange rate graph shows that this is 0.57 Philippine cents higher compared to a month earlier as May 23’s rate was at Php 14.26.
Omar Assaf, Chief Treasury Officer at Al Fardan Exchange said, “The Philippine Peso (PHP) is dealing at the weakest point ever, touching the level USD/PHP 54.53 (AED/PHP 14.85). There has been a depreciation of 7.13% starting the beginning of 2022 to-date. Filipino expats living in the UAE will surely benefit from these lower levels as they will be receiving more PHP against the same Dirham amount they used to send previously.”
“Many factors have contributed to this slowdown in the market; such as the global political uncertainties, and the drop in the tourism’s contribution to the Filipino economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect that more devaluation may take place in the coming period,” he added.
The graph also shows that the last time this took place was 17 years ago in November 2005, when the exchange rate was AED 1 = Php 14.88.
Data showed that the highest exchange rate ever reached was in Dec 2004, peaking Php 15.31 to AED 1.
Earlier, the United Arab Emirates ranked sixth among top sending countries to the Philippines as of January 2022.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the sum of transfers sent in cash or in-kind via informal channels reached $2.966 billion (Php 154,831,132,000) in January 2022. Of this number, $94,912,000 or Php 4.9B came from the UAE.
