THE country's 2.1 million foreign workers sent home RM4.5 billion in the first three months of the year.

This represents 2.8 per cent of the total outflow of funds from the country's current account, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha said.

"So, the impact on the economy and the value of the ringgit is not very big," he said in response to a question by Datuk Abdul Manan Ismail (BN-Paya Besar).

Abdul Manan wanted to know whether it was true that the ringgit had been depreciating against the US dollar because of the remittances made by foreign workers.

Kong said the country's strong international reserves could absorb the cash remittances, which accounted for 1.2 per cent of the total current reserves.