Global money-transfer company Moneygram anticipates remittances to be back on track its projected growth in the coming months after a 5.4 percent slump for the month of July.
The slowdown in remittances was credited to the drop in the deployment of skilled Filipino workers and so-called derisking of foreign banks and their respective money-transfer businesses, according to an earlier report by the BusinessMirror.
Moneygram Philippines Country Manager Alex Chan Lim said the slowdown was something the company anticipated as part of the annual remittance cycle.
“We’ve already been expecting that. I think it’s a cycle already and it will pick up in the next quarter,” Lim said at a news briefing.
Remittances by Filipino migrant workers help fuel the country’s continued economic growth. In 2015 cash sent home by more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers accounted for 9.8 percent of the country’s economy, bringing in $25.8 billion by year-end.
July 2016 saw the largest monthly decline since November 2015, dropping to $2.313 billion, from $2.25 billion in the same month last year.
Nevertheless, Lim sees the flow from Filipinos abroad should spiking back up in the final four months this year. “The so-called ber months are already here, while the long Yuletide season is fast approaching and millions of overseas Filipinos will be sending more money to their families and we’re anticipating that already.”
In an earlier statement, Lim was positive the 4-percent remittance growth expected by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is highly achievable this year.
“Filipinos continue to go outside everyday…of course, central bank numbers can be achieved,” the executive said in July.
Moneygram is one of the leading remittance centers in the Philippines. It holds a global network of approximately 350,000 locations in 200 countries and territories worldwide. Locally, it has more than 12,000 locations across the Philippines.
The company recently partnered with the Black Pencil Project for the School-in-A-Box Program, providing complete study packs, teacher’s kits and relevant learning resource materials for the marginalized children from the indigenous communities across the country.