THE coronavirus outbreak is expected to shave 0.8 percentage points off the growth of overseas-worker remittances, bringing the total amount expected to about $34.2 billion, Malacañang said in a briefing Monday.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said growth estimates in Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) remittances have been adjusted downwards to 2.2% to account for the impact of the outbreak of coronavirus in China and beyond. The virus is formally known as Covid-19.

Mr. Nograles characterized the hit to growth as “minimal.”

“We have adjusted our growth projections to 2.2% and now expect $34.2 billion in remittances for 2020. Nevertheless, this shall still (be) another record high in Overseas Filipino remittances,” he said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last week reported an OFW personal remittance total for 2019 of $33.46 billion, up 3.9%.

Mr. Nograles said that China remittances only account for 0.1% of total OFW remittances. Macau and Hong Kong have shares of 0.4% and 2.7% respectively.

Mr. Nograles added that remittances from other countries where OFWs reside such as the US, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia can take up the slack when remittance growth from China and its territories falls off.

“Remittances from other source countries such as the US, UAE and Saudi Arabia may help compensate for the possible slowdown in remittances coming from China, Macau and Hong Kong and we are encouraged by historical data that shows that Philippine remittances have been resilient even in the face of global downtrends,” he said. — Gillian M. Cortez

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