Philippines may see US$35 billion OFW remittances fall by 20% this year

MANILA, April 23 (Inquirer Business/ANN) - Remittance flows to the Philippines may decline by more than a fifth this year as many Filipinos working and living abroad stand to lose employment while the global economy grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington-based World Bank said.

“Year-on-year growth in remittances [to the Philippines] for January and February 2020 was 4.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, suggesting little slowdown to date. However, the government is anticipating a 20-30 percent decline in remittances for 2020 and a corresponding growth rate of 2 percent due to the fallout from COVID-19, ” the World Bank said in its latest Migration and Development Brief for April 2020 titled “COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens” released on Wednesday.