DUTCH financial giant ING Bank said strong remittance growth is unlikely to change the peso’s bias toward weakness, unless a significant amount of foreign direct investments enter the Philippines this year.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Thursday reported that money sent home by overseas Filipino workers in January 2018 grew 9.7 percent to $2.37 billion from $2.169 billion a year ago, the fastest in 10 months since the 10.7-percent expansion in March 2017.
Personal remittances for the month, which include non-cash items, expanded 10.8 percent to $2.655 billion from $2.396 billion a year ago, also the fastest in 10 months since the 11.8-percent growth in March 2017.
“… Despite strong remittance growth in January, the amount still fell short of financing the trade deficit. The shortfall amounted to $938 million. The three-month moving average shows a deterioration from September’s excess of $94 million to December’s shortfall of $1.1 billion and January’s 3-month moving average shortfall of $1.2 billion,” the bank said in a report.