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The World Bank expects remittances from Filipinos living and working abroad to decline by 5 percent this year, even as the Philippines will remain the fourth largest recipient of these dollar inflows due to cheap shipping fees.
In its October Migration and Development Report entitled “COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens,” the World Bank projected that the top five remittance destinations last year – India, China, Mexico, the Philippines and Egypt – they would maintain their same classification this year.
But in the case of the Philippines, the World Bank forecasts that remittances will decline to $ 33.3 billion in 2020, equivalent to 9.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), from $ 35.2 billion in 2019, as more than 300,000 Filipino migrant workers were expected to return home. at the end of the year as a result of the global recession induced by the pandemic.
The World Bank said that remittance flows from the United States, which accounted for 38 percent of the 2019 total, “remain somewhat resilient,” growing by 5.8 percent year-on-year during the first eight months.
On the other hand, remittances from Europe and the Middle East at the end of August fell 16.1 percent and 13.2 percent year-on-year, respectively, the World Bank noted.
Europe and the Middle East accounted for 13.2 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively, of total remittances last year.
“This likely reflects the absence of formal safety nets available to migrant workers in many host countries in the face of the pandemic and the large repatriation of Filipino workers,” said the Washington-based multilateral lender.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, the World Bank said more than 230,000 Filipino Overseas Workers (OFWs) returned home earlier this month, equivalent to about half of the OFWs that they had been fired from work.
So far, repatriated lost migrant workers accounted for more than a tenth of the 2.2 million migrant workers estimated in September last year, while 22 percent, most of whom lived in Europe, chose to stay there instead. to return to the Philippines, the World Bank said.
“According to the country’s Foreign Relations Department, as of October 7, 10,849 OFW had tested positive, of which 6,905 had recovered and 800 had died,” added the World Bank.
Amid the pandemic, the World Bank said the average cost of sending remittances to East Asia and the Pacific region rose 7.05 percent during the third quarter, faster than the 6.96 percent increase recorded in the second trimester.
However, Filipinos sending money home enjoyed one of the lowest remittance rates in the region, especially those sending money to the Philippines from Singapore, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Spain.
To resume employment abroad, the World Bank said the Philippines was looking forward to alternative labor markets for Filipino workers such as China and Eastern Europe.
Additionally, the World Bank noted that the Philippine government was offering free retraining programs for select jobs such as call center agents, teachers, and contract trackers, while migrant worker groups are pushing for major construction projects that could help employ some of the repatriated workers.
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