Philippine economy, recession and OFW (s)

I was so happy to know that my beloved Philippines is not in recession. For the year 2008, it posted 4.6% economic growth, though compared to year 2007's 7.3%, it's slightly lower.

The world is in recession and most economies that the Philippines is dependent on are in this economic turmoil, it's still a good thing that the Philippines is not joining the bandwagon.

I am an OFW and a little worrying scenario, is the devaluation of the Singapore dollar. Last week, 1SGD is equal to 31.35PHP and two weeks ago it was 31.40PHP. When I had my lunch today at Fusionopolis, my mates were discussing about the exchange rates and an office mate told us that the exchange rate right now is 1SGD = 31.15PHP. The fact that the Singapore government is planning to weaken the SGD will make this worse.

I am not sure how many OFWs who are here in Singapore, but this turn of events will generally affect us and our families. The Japan economy is in recession but the Japan yen is still strong and I haven't heard or seen on print and TV that they are planning to weaken the yen. Haven't heard of the US weakening their dollar. Is that legal for a country to actually control their monetary strength? Anyway, if things would really get worse and these rich countries which are in recession will weaken their currencies, then the OFW will be in slaughter. So sad but I am hoping this will not happen and also hoping that this recession will be over soon.

Singapore economy is in stormy weather.

It's been all over the news that the Singapore economy is in recession and the forcasted growth would be -2% to -5%. The finance minister of Singapore announced the budget spending for this year of the cow and it has with it a mooing $20.5 billion (SG) to be spent as to spur the economy and aid the low income residents(What about foreign workers who in one way or another have helped the Singapore economy?).

So what's my take on this?

Suddenly I'm becoming interested because I am very new here in Singapore and I think this will gravely affect my stay here and my family in the Philippines.

I knew that there will be retrenchments in other companies and too glad not in our company. In fact we are hiring more engineers for the upcoming projects. They will be recruiting these new engineers from around SEA. But since many will have no jobs so the competition will be tougher. I have friends in the Philippines who are coming here in Singapore to actually get a job and I told them to postpone their plans until things get better.

I also knew that the Singapore government will try to weaken the SG dollar. Grrrrrrrr... If that's the case then my remittances' value will be lesser. Hoping things will be alright. Wishing that the Philippines will have bolder steps as well so the effect won't be too much which I am positive....

I do hope that this recession will be over. Predictions has it that this recession can last up to the next six months of this year or longer. Scary yet I am pretty much positive that everything will be better.

Those bad investments, something-fishy investors and greedy investments has to be abolished(next time) and should not be allowed. Hehehehe. I am not an expert in Economics so I don't know exactly what I am talking about. This is a serious matter though that needs attention, back up plans, aggressive and decisive steps. Let's just brace ourselves and ride the tides for this stormy weather not just in Singapore....