Remittances are a lifeline to Philippines' typhoon survivors

Reuters: A sister living on the other side of the world gave Roberto Retanal what he needed most to piece his humble home back together after the devastating typhoon that tore through his village in the central Philippines last month. She sent him 40,000 pesos ($900) to replace the roof ripped off his house by the strongest winds ever recorded in a country where typhoons are all too common.

Retanal's sister live and works in Britain. There are some 10 million Filipinos living and working abroad, sending regular remittances to help their families get by. Between January and October, they had sent back around $18.5 billion, six percent more than last year and running at a rate equivalent to around 10 percent of the gross domestic product.

When disaster struck on November 8 the telegraphic transfers went into overdrive. "Filipinos dug even deeper," said Pia de Lima, spokeswoman for Western Union in Asia-Pacific, which cancelled transaction fees for three weeks after the typhoon for money coming in from 43 countries.

The typhoon Haiyan killed nearly 6,100 people, with around 1,800 still listed missing. But more than 16 million people have been affected by the calamity. Aside from the ruined infrastructure and housing, the coconut groves that provided livelihoods for families in rural areas were uprooted. The worst-hit eastern and central Visayas region accounts for around 9 percent of the Philippines' GDP.

Economic growth is expected to be 7 percent this year, slightly slower than China. As a result of the typhoon, analysts expect growth to slow to between 4.1 and 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter, but officials are sticking with a 6.5-7.5 percent growth target for next year....