Filipinos cheer peso plunge

Expats are sending more money home as peso slumps to 11-year-low.

singapore — One bright spot from the Philippine peso’s slump to an 11-year-low against the dollar can be found among the nation’s more than 10 million overseas workers.

The currency’s slide is spurring Filipinos to send more money home, fuelling consumption and economic growth in the Southeast Asian nation. At 10 per cent of gross domestic product, remittances are also a key source of foreign income in the Philippines, helping to finance a widening current-account gap.

Aileen Almazan, 37, who works as an information technology professional in Singapore, says it’s an opportune time to lock in more pesos into her Philippine savings account so she has more money to spend when she visits Manila. Marlyn de la Cruz, 51, a domestic helper in Hong Kong, says the decline in the peso is helping defray her family’s household expenses, while Irene Lim, 36, a compliance analyst at a regional bank in the island state, is being goaded by the weaker peso to invest more back home in terms of property and mutual funds.

“My Manila-based family gets to enjoy higher remittance, while I have more investment options given the extra cash generated by the favourable exchange rate,” said Lim, who has been working in Singapore for more than a decade. “It has definitely encouraged me to invest more back home given the slight improvement and the positive outlook on the country’s economy.”

The peso is the worst performer among Asia’s major currencies this year as the government’s aggressive infrastructure drive fuels imports and widens the current-account deficit. Remittances from Filipinos living overseas have been steadily rising for more than a decade to reach a record in 2017.