Survey: Filipinos spending more, saving less in Q4

Amid the holiday season, fewer households were saving money even as those who receive remittances from overseas allot more for investment and savings for future needs, results of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ latest consumer expectations survey showed.

During the fourth quarter, the percentage of households with savings were lower at 32.6 percent compared with 33.1 percent in the second quarter, the BSP said in a report.

“According to respondents, they save money for the following reasons: emergencies, education, health and hospitalization, retirement, purchase of real estate, and business capital and investment,” the BSP said quoting results of the survey.

The percentage of respondents who said they could set aside money for savings during the the last quarter of the year also eased to 41.1 percent from 41.6 percent in the third quarter.

Many Filipinos splurge during the Christmas holidays, especially upon their bonuses.

Most families of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) also likely received the bulk of remittances during the so-called ‘ber’ months leading to the holidays.

Among OFW households surveyed by the BSP, 96.4 percent spent the remittances they received to buy food, among other household items.

“The proportion of households that said so as well as those that allotted part of their remittances for education (70 percent), debt payments (42.8 percent), purchase of consumer durables (22.2 percent), purchase of house (13 percent), and purchase of motor vehicles (8.8 percent) increased,” the BSP added.

The BSP also noted an increasing number of OFW households that save up. “Those that apportioned part of their remittances for savings and investment rose to 46.8 percent (from 39.6 percent a quarter ago) and 10 percent (from 3.8 percent in the previous quarter’s survey results), respectively,” it said.

The BSP’s fourth-quarter consumer expectations survey was conducted on Oct. 3-14 among 5,836 households nationwide.

In general, an “improved” peace and order situation alongside the government’s plan to end the so-called “endo” system for contractual workers pushed consumers’ optimism to its highest level to date during the fourth quarter, such that the overall confidence index jumped to a record high of 9.2 percent.

A positive CI meant the number of optimistic households exceeded those that were pessimistic. After almost a decade of staying within negative territory, the CI moved to a positive reading of 2.5 percent during the third quarter or the first three months of the Duterte administration.