By CHRIS V PANGANIBAN

DOHA: Remittances among Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Qatar remain normal even as the US dollar has started to pick up against the Philippine peso in the past few days, notably on Saturday when the dollar rose to 46.55 and businessmen back home had foreseen it to go even higher to 46.80 next week.

Manny Canchela, manager of Habib Qatar Exchange at the Souq area, said they are not expecting remittances to perk up because of the rising dollar, especially these days of the month, which is far from pay days. “We don’t see any excitement during this lull period of the month even if the dollar goes strong against the peso,” Canchela said. He however said very few OFWs would monitor the foreign exchange trend before they would send money back home.

Canchela said the bulk of remittances would always fall during the 15th or the last few days of the month during the pay days and the dollar coincidentally would go down at normal levels.

OFWs remittances have been a major contributor to the Philippine economy. Despite a slow down of remitted money during the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, Filipino workers abroad sent home an estimated $10.9bn in the first eight months which was 24 percent higher as compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Canchela has noted an increase of OFWs shifting their remittances through bank to bank transaction than the usual direct remittances through money transfer scheme because of the lower charges offered by exchange houses in Qatar.

At Habib Qatar, bank to bank charges are slightly lower at QR15 riyal and OFWs, even lowly-paid workers, have been opting for these services since banks back home also charges very low amount for opening an account.

THE PENINSULA