THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) expects remittances by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to increase by 5 percent in 2009.

Acting Neda Director-General Augusto Santos told reporters that remittances from OFWs are “possible to grow 5 percent this year”

Sun.Star accepts donations for victims of Typhoon Ondoy

He said the Christmas season and the recent calamities could prop up remittance inflows in the remaining months of the year as OFWs are expected to send more money home to help their families recover immediately from the effects of the weather disturbances that hit the country recently.

“It looks like that the behavior of our OFWs is to send more money during calamities and Christmas season,” he said.

The Neda projection is more optimistic than that of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which forecast a three percent growth.

In the first seven months of the year, remittances rose 3.8 percent year-on-year to $ 10 billion. In July alone, remittances accelerated 9.3 percent to $ 1.5 billion.

Remittances from sea- and land-based workers both recorded gains of 5.6 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Major sources of remittances during the seven-month period were the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Germany.

Earlier, Dennis Arroyo, Neda National Planning and Policy Staff director, said remittances would “offset” the impact of storm "Ondoy" and typhoon "Pepeng" on the economy.

The government estimated about P9.76-billion worth of infrastructure and agriculture facilities was damaged by the two weather disturbances.

Given this, the Neda said the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) may be cut by 0.2 percentage points this year to 0.6 percent to 1.6 percent from an earlier forecast of 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent.

But the government is maintaining its growth target because of robust remittances from OFWs.

The country's GDP in the first half grew by one percent, lower than the four percent expansion in the same period last year.(PNA)