More OFW money goes to investments

CEBU, Philippines — Savings and investments are now part of the important budget allocations for money sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to their families home.

Based on the newly releases survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) revealed that OFW households that utilize their remittances for savings and investment increase for the current quarter.

Of the 470 households included in the survey that received OFW remittances for Q4 2018, 98.5 percent used the remittances that they received to purchase food and other household needs.

Further, the proportion of OFW households who allotted part of their remittances for education (67 percent), medical expenses (52.6 percent), savings (35.5 percent), and investment (5.1 percent) rose compared to the previous quarter's survey results.

Meanwhile, a lower percentage of OFW households apportioned their remittances for purchase of appliances/consumer durables (18.7 percent), purchase of house (10.4 percent), purchase of car/motor vehicle (6.4 percent), debt payments (21.9 percent), and other miscellaneous expenses (0.4 percent) was observed.

Generally, for the fourth quarter this year, the percentage of households with savings increased slightly to 32.8 percent from 32.5 percent in the previous quarter.

According to respondents, they save money for emergencies, health and hospitalization, education, retirement, purchase of real estate and business capital investments.

Among households with savings, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents have bank deposit accounts for Q4 2018 (up from 66.2 percent in Q3 2018). Moreover, 46.2 percent kept their savings at home, while 26.5 percent put their money in cooperatives, paluwagan, other credit/loan associations, and as investment (e.g., microfinance and insurance).

The percentage of respondents who reported that they could set aside money for savings during the current quarter grew to 40.2 percent (from 37.3 percent in Q3 2018). (FREEMAN)