OFW remittances kept RP afloat, economist says

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have once again saved the country as they continued to send enough money back home to keep the economy afloat, an economist said on Thursday. Remittances from Filipinos working abroad were enough to buoy the Philippine economy, Frederico Macaranas, a professor at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), told GMANews.TV. Highly-skilled OFWs remained the top cash remitters in the second quarter of 2009, Macaranas said. “Without a doubt, the long-term saviors of the country are OFWs," Macaranas said. The former AIM executive director is thankful for the government’s policy of sending more skilled workers abroad in the last decade which, in turn, has led to increasing remittances every year. Millions of Filipinos working overseas sent home a record high $1.5 billion in June, 3.3 percent higher than last year’s figures. The increase allayed fears that remittances will dry up as Filipinos abroad lost jobs amid the global slowdown. Nearly 10 percent of the country's 90 million people work abroad — many as nurses, maids, engineers, construction workers and seamen. “So now it shows that the OFWs we have are high-earners," Macaranas said. Last year, overseas Filipinos sent home $16.4 billion, equal to 10.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Remittances fuel domestic consumption, increasing demand for consumer goods and services such as mobile phones and cellphone credits. [See: RP economy expands, averting contraction] The World Bank had earlier projected a four percent drop in remittances this year but Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco said that signs of a global economic recovery "affirmed the positive outlook for steady remittances for 2009." Continued remittance growth since January this year was accompanied by emerging signs of improving global economic conditions, he added. Over 65,000 OFWs arrived home jobless from October 2008 to March 2009, after export-dependent industries felt the brunt of the US-led economic crisis. - GMANews.TV