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STIMULUS spending by countries employing its workers is helping the
Philippines maintain its remittances despite the global economic
downturn, a labor leader said Sunday.
Remittances make up 10 percent of the
Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP), and rose 13.7 percent
in 2008 from a year earlier to $16.429 billion. GDP is total cost of
all goods and services produced in a country in a year.
But there have been fears that this revenue will
dry up in the coming months as jobs disappear in host countries.
The Philippine central bank has already recorded
slumps in remittances from the main labor markets, including the US,
Italy, Britain, Taiwan, Australia, and South Korea, as well as
Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.
“We’ve never seen anything like this since
the government embarked on an overseas employment program. The
declines are widespread, on account of the severe and extensive
global economic downturn,” said Ernesto Herrera, secretary-general
of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and columnist
of The Manila Times.
However, the decline in remittances from the
major markets had been offset by stimulus spending in others,
particularly Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia, he said.
Remittances from these countries accounted for
most of the 4.9-percent rise recorded by the central bank in
February from a year earlier, to $1.32 billion, he said.
“Except for the US, it would seem that
remittances from countries with aggressive economic stimulus plans
remain somewhat robust,” Herrera said.
Saudi Arabia is rolling out new infrastructure,
boosting demand for Filipino engineers and construction workers,
while Japan is recruiting more foreign workers particularly in
shipping, technology and services, he added.
-- AFP With The Manila Times
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