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Submitted by el joma on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 12:05.

may i ask for your kind guidance in understanding how it can be said
that the philippines' annual remittances worth us$18.6billion
(estimate for 2008 by world bank:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/RemittancesData_March09-Release.xls)
is calculated at 11.6% of the philippine gdp.

i tried to verify this the following way:
1. i got the philippine gdp for 2008
(http://222.127.10.196/cgi-bin/st2.cgi?/eds/db/national/national/national_accounts_phil_a.sc)
but found that it was in pesos: php1,432,088,000,000.00
2. i got the official average peso dollar exchange rate for 2008
(http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/spei_new/tab25.htm):
php44.4746:us$1.
3. when i divide php1,432,088,000,000.00 by 44.47 i get us$32,200,132,210.29.
4. when i divide the us$18.6billion with the us$32.2billion, i get
57.7%, not 11.6%

now verifying even further: the world cia factbook
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/RP.html)
places the philippine estimated 2008 GDP at us$320.6billion (based, it
says, on purchasing power parity) or us$168.6billion (based on the
official exchange rate).

could you help me sir to understand how it can be said that the
philippine remittances of 2008 is 11.6% of its gdp?

thanks sir.