MANILA, Philippines—Contrary to the most pessimistic projections at the start of the pandemic, the country’s estimated 10 million expatriate Filipinos came through in 2020 to send home dollars in amounts that were just a fraction less than 2019 levels.
In a statement, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said that “despite the global slump caused by the pandemic”, personal remittances from the country’s foreign-based citizens fell slightly by 0.3 percent year-on-year to $3.205 billion in December 2020 from $3.216 billion in December 2019.
This is in sharp contrast to bearish forecasts made in 2020 by the likes of the World Bank, which had predicted a 13-perc…
Keep on reading: Dollar flow from expat Filipinos defies doomsayers, slip by only 0.3 percent in 2020