Cash remittances are expected to grow faster this year as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will likely take advantage of a weaker peso to send bigger funds to their families back home, analysts at a global bank said, but flagged risks drawn from a deployment ban to Kuwait.

HSBC Global Research said remittances likely grew by 5.1% in January from a year ago, although slower than the 7.1% year-on-year surge posted in December 2017.

“We expect remittances to expand 5.1% y-o-y in January, after a sequential decline from the inflows in December. Overall remittances grew 4.3% y-o-y in 2017, slower than the 5.0% growth in the previous year,” HSBC said in a report published Wednesday, March 14.

“We anticipate remittances to rebound in 2018, growing back to its recent trend of around 5%, as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) take advantage of the weak peso, but downside risks persist given the Duterte Administration’s proposal to ban OFWs from going to Kuwait due to recent abuse and maltreatment cases.”

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will report remittances data on Thursday, March 15. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR