MANILA – Compensation from Filipinos working abroad fell 0.8% to $ 29.9 billion last year, contrary to expectations of a sharper fall due to the pandemic, the country’s central bank said Monday .
However, with the return of more than 400,000 workers amid the global health crisis, they have raised concerns about whether the transition could be a way of life – a lifestyle for the Philippine economy that has traveled 9.5% higher than last year – to maintain strength.
The margin blow forecasts, including the Asian Development Bank, which in August predicted a fall of up to 20.2%. The Philippine central bank initially forecast a 5% decline, before halting the 2% shortfall.
Reports from the US, which accounted for nearly 40% of the total, and also from Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, South Korea and Taiwan grew while those from Saudi Arabia , Japan, the UK, the United Arab Emiratos, Germany and Kuwait fell, according to the central bank.
Filipino workers abroad, analysts have said, tend to send more money back home in times of economic hardship or crisis. But the strong Philippine peso may have motivated workers to shed more dollars, said Alvin Ang, a professor of economics at Ateneo De Manila University. “They’re investing in local equivalent value.”
Migrants who come home for good may be able to boost the transmission data. “They’re taking back their savings,” Ang said.
The government has brought back more than 400,000 migrant workers, including those who lost their jobs in the retail, oil, tourism and other industries. Meanwhile, labor force deployment from January to October fell 60.8%, to 693,687, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
“So sustainability is an issue,” Ang said.
The Philippines, the third largest recipient of money in Asia after India and China, has relied on money sent by about 10 million Filipinos who live and work abroad. Forces of Filipino nurses, sailors, nuns, hotel workers and construction workers help to power the economy of a Southeast Asian country through their payments, which representing about 9% of the country’s gross domestic product.
“[But] for all the heroes presented by our heroes today, “said ING Bank Manila chief economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa, commenting on how migrant workers are valued at home, “we note the tortuous punch packed by a once very powerful foreign exchange flowing from abroad. “
Map said payout fell 4.8% in peso terms when adjusted for exchange rate movements.
Ang expects Filipino workers to continue looking for jobs abroad as the global economy recovers. But he said companies that have switched to digital may need fewer hands. “My concern,” Ang said, “is that they will no longer be needed because the companies survived without them.”