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Sunday, December 09, 2007

Not all OFWs are suffering from weak US dollar

OK, I used the Yahoo finance to track the currencies as complaints are all over about the losing value of the US dollars, resulting in suffering of most OFW families receiving remittances.

Here are the historical exchange rates for four currencies and the Peso:

US Dollar in Jan 2007 was 49.5, and today is around 42.0 (Peso can buy more)
EU was 61 in May 2006, and today is still around 61.0 (The same)
Aus dollar, it was 37.5 in Feb 2007, and today it is still around 37.0 (The same)
Yen was worth 0.43 in Jan 2007, and today it is just worth 0.37 (Peso can buy more)

This shows that only OFWs based in the US, and countries whose currency are peg to the dollar such Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman etc. are suffering from the decreased value of the dollar.

But for those countries in Europe, OFWs there are earning still the same amount of Pesoses. There is no worry there.

So?

The situation is really not in the hands of the government. The problem is the weakness of the US dollar, and the government cannot do anything about the US economy, hehehe. So, for our exporters, my advise would be to export more to Europe, or Taiwan, Korea etc.

For OFWs, particularly in the Middle East, my advise would be to move to Kuwait, where the currency is not peg to the dollar, or any other country, such as Australia or Europe where currencies are stronger.

Yes, it easier said than done, but that is the reality.