Business | Economy
Philippine remittance growth falls to 2.2% in April
Growth in remittances sent home by Philippine citizens abroad slowed in April as the global recession reduced demand for Filipino nurses, engineers and housekeepers overseas.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:51 June 15, 2009
Manila: Growth in remittances sent home by Philippine citizens abroad slowed in April as the global recession reduced demand for Filipino nurses, engineers and housekeepers overseas.
Money sent back to the Philippines increased 2.2 per cent from a year earlier to $1.44 billion (Dh5.3 billion), the central bank said in a statement in Manila yesterday. Remittances grew 3.1 per cent in March.
Remittances, the Philippines' largest source of foreign exchange after exports, may contract four per cent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund said last week.
The government predicts the economy may grow as little as 0.8 per cent this year, the slowest pace since 1998, amid the worst global slump since the Great Depression.
"Weaker global economic conditions continued to pose some risk to the continued strength of the deployment of Filipino workers abroad," Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in the statement.
Still, the increase in the number of displaced overseas workers has slowed, the central bank said.
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