Ten Million Reasons Why Cheap Oil Might Hurt The Philippines

Slowing remittance growth is unlikely to have a major impact on Philippine GDP, according to Credit Suisse’s Wan, who is forecasting expansion of 6.2 percent this year. Weaker private consumption usually leads to expatriate Filipinos sending more money home to help families through tough times and savings on fuel costs will spur domestic spending, he said.

“The real test might be yet to come,” said Wan. ”If oil prices continue to head lower, we could see bigger cutbacks by Middle East governments, which will weigh on remittance prospects.”

--With assistance from Siegfrid Alegado, Clarissa Batino and Karl Lester M. Yap.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ditas Lopez in Manila at dlopez55@bloomberg.net; Lilian Karunungan in Singapore at lkarunungan@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net; Linus Chua at lchua@bloomberg.net Andrew Janes, Simon Harvey

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