Remittance growth slows to 4.1% in March to $1.6B

MANILA, Philippines—Remittances rose further, albeit at a slower pace, in March as the impact of the continued deployment of Filipino workers to alternative labor markets offset the ill-effects of the recent disaster in Japan and the unrest in the Middle East on employment offshore.

The growth in remittances even during a tough period gave comfort to the government that inflows of money from overseas-based Filipinos would remain strong throughout the year, thus continue supporting consumption of domestic households.

Documents from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that remittances in March amounted to $1.6 billion, rising 4.1 percent from $1.55 billion in the same month last year.

The annual growth rate in remittances in March, however, was slower than the 6.2 percent registered in February and the 7.6 percent in January.

Money sent home by Filipinos abroad brought the total for the first quarter to $4.59 billion, up 5.9 percent from $4.34 billion in the same period last year.

The BSP said it expected remittances for the full year to grow 6 percent from last year’s.

“Despite the ongoing social unrest in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa region and string of disasters in Japan, remittances maintained a broadly steady pace of growth in the first quarter of the year,” the BSP reported on Monday.

Remittances from Japan account for about 5 percent of total, while those from the Middle East accounted for about 15 percent. North Africa, however, accounted for an insignificant portion of remittances to the Philippines.

The BSP said remittances were likely to continue growing in the months ahead as job orders for Filipino workers keep coming.

It cited data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showing that in the first four months of the year, job orders for Filipino workers from employers overseas totaled 203,748. Of the number, about 30 percent have already been processed by the POEA.

The employment requirements are wide-ranging as these included services, production, professional and technical-related jobs. The requirements came mostly from employers based in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The BSP also said that continuing efforts of Philippine banks to increase their presence in Filipino labor markets offshore helped increase the amount of remittances sent to formal channels.

Remittances are a significant driver of growth of the Philippine economy as the money helps boost consumption of Filipino households. Last year, total remittances of $18.8 billion were equivalent to about 10 percent of the economy’s total output.—Michelle V. Remo