Money sent home by Filipinos based in the
United States has dropped for the first time in memory.
For the first four months of 2009,
remittances from the US stood at $2.287 billion, a $300 million
or 10.4 percent decline from the January-April 2008 inflow of
$2.553 billion.
The US is the country’s biggest source of
remittances, accounting for 41 percent of inflow in April.
The slowdown indicates that US-based Pinoys
were starting to feel the effects of the American economic
crisis.
Cumulative remittances during the first four
months stood at $5.5 billion, up by 2.6 percent from the same
period in 2008.
While this bucked forecast of a downturn, the
growth was way below the double-digits rates in the past.
Money sent home by overseas Filipinos based
in the United Kingdom also went down by 9.45 percent, from $294
million to $266 million.
Remittances from Canada, in contrast, surged
by 65 percent from $344 million to $567 million.
Remittances from Saudi Arabia were also up by
17.6 percent to $483 million from $411 million.
Overseas Filipinos in Japan also sent more
money home, increasing by as much as 53 percent from $164
million to $251 million.
In April, remittances stood at $1.4 billion,
up.2 percent year on year.
BSP said the 2.6 percent growth registered in
the first four months of 2009 was supported by higher
remittances from both sea-based and land-based workers of 2.5
percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
A report from the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA) said demand for Filipino
workers abroad remained broadly strong.
As of end-May 2009, a total of 758,412 active
job orders had been reported, of which 37 percent had been
processed while 63 percent were still to be filled up.
POEA said the bulk of the job orders was in
the production, services, and professional skill categories.
"Demand for Filipino workers abroad is
expected to be sustained by employment opportunities gained from
hiring agreements forged between the Philippines and host
countries in need of Filipino manpower for their development and
construction needs, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Canada and
Australia, among others," PEOA said.
While weaker global economic conditions
continued to pose some risk to the continued strength of the
deployment of Filipino workers abroad, the government remains
focused on job generation programs to help displaced overseas
workers find alternative jobs in emerging markets and in
countries that are not severely affected by the global financial
meltdown, it said.
