HONG KONG – The coronavirus pandemic is stopping shipment of remittances from foreign personnel in the Philippines, harming families in the coffers of the house and government.
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest labour exporters, with more than 10 million Filipinos in some two hundred countries and territories. During his presidency, Ferdinand Marcos began selling labor migration as an economic policy in the 1970s.Staff traveled to the Middle East as emerging oil costs stimulated demand for migrant labor.
“Families receiving remittances may not be the most deficient among the deficient because they migrate without monetary resources.But if they only have remittances abroad, they are financially vulnerable,” he said.Opiniano.
These remittances have long protected the economy from external shocks, such as those caused by the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic and the global monetary crisis of 2008-09.
Analysts say this is because migrant staff have returned cash to their families, but the pandemic has replaced them, with definitive business closure measures and raising unemployment rates.
Alvin Ang, director of the Athenaeum Centre for Economic Research and Development, said that unlike the global monetary crisis of 2008-09 or the SARS outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has a more serious effect on migrant workers.
“It’s just a monetary problem. Companies have to close because the virus is spreading rapidly,” Ang said.
The Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs had repatriated 124,717 foreigners as of August 8.
Ang predicts that the branch may want to repatriate 400,000 Filipino employees this year as the pandemic weighs on the global economy and expects remittances to fall to $6 billion this year.
Robert Dan Roces, a leading economist at Manila-based Security Bank Corp, said the fall in remittances could “slow the resumption of growth.”
Household intake accounts for 70% of Philippine GDP and “intake also depends on remittances, falling wages and job losses for our migrant staff will demand families,” Roces said.
Remittances have long fueled national entry into the Philippines, yet these remittances are slowing as the pandemic hits the world economy and leaves millions of others out of work.Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central bank, said remittances from January to May fell 6.4% to $12.84 billion.
Prior to the pandemic, the Philippines was one of Asia’s fastest developing economies, with an average expansion of 6.6%.
Nicholas Antonio Mapa, senior economist for the Philippines at Dutch investment bank ING, predicts that the economy will return to the “lowest expansion trajectory from 3.5% to 4.5%.”
“We expect an immediate change in customer behavior, especially as COVID-19 instances are still on the rise,” Map said in its most recent report.He said family spending “will be set aside for the long foreseeable period due to a fractured workforce.”market and a decrease in remittances.”
Roces said Philippine remittances “have historically been resilient.”But the pandemic has charged “a high price on businesses and staff on a scale we have not yet measured.”Remittances are expected to fall by 12% this year.
Roces said the Philippine government may want to assign a component of its stimulus package to displaced migrant workers.
“The new thing popular for Filipinos and their families is spending within their means,” he said, adding that the pandemic has shown that any source of income, including remittances, will not be there forever.
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