More households turning to savings, investments

MANILA, Philippines — More Filipino households, including beneficiaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), turned to savings and investments in the first quarter,  according to results of a quarterly survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Based on the first quarter 2022 Consumer Expectations Survey (CES), the percentage of households with savings increased to 31.1 percent in the first quarter from 30.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

“According to the respondents, they saved money for emergencies, health and medical expenses, retirement, education, and business capital and investment,” the BSP said.

Likewise, the percentage of households with savings accounts in banks also increased to 71 percent from the previous quarter’s 68.9 percent.

However, about 44.8 percent of the respondents kept their savings at home, while 36.6 percent considered other institutions such as cooperatives, paluwagan, credit or loan associations, investments, and other institutions including microfinance and insurance for safekeeping of their savings.

When asked if households would set aside money for savings, the percentage of respondents that answered affirmatively decreased to 32 percent from 34.4 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

In particular, the percentage of those that would set aside less than 10 percent for their savings declined to 64.8 percent from 67.6 percent a quarter earlier.

In contrast, the proportion of those that would set aside at least 10 percent of their monthly gross family income for savings increased to 35.2 percent from 32.4 percent.

Based on the survey, Filipino consumers expect unemployment to decline, interest rates to rise, and the peso to depreciate further. They also expect inflation to breach the BSP’s two to four percent target.

Meanwhile, the results of the survey showed that the percentage of households receiving OFW remittances turning to savings increased to 38 percent in the first quarter from 31.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Likewise, the percentage that turned to investments also went up to 10.9 percent from 9.2 percent.

“The number of OFW households that either set aside their remittances for savings or invested a portion increased in Q1 2022,” the BSP said.

In terms of the utilization pattern of remittances by area, a larger percentage of OFW households in the National Capital Region (NCR) allotted part of their remittances to food and other household needs, medical expenses, debt payments, savings, purchase of house, and investments as opposed to their counterparts in areas outside NCR.

The survey covering 5,000 households was conducted from March 21 to 31.