December 20, 2021 | 00h00

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipino Overseas Worker (OFW) families save and invest less in Q4 despite expected rebound in remittances, as host countries gradually recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Redentor Paolo Alegre, senior director of the economic statistics department at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), said that based on the results of the Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) for the fourth quarter of 2021, the percentage of households using remittances to save fell slightly. at 31.7% compared to 31.8% in the previous quarter.

Likewise, Alegre said OFW families using remittances for investments fell to 9.2% from 11%.

According to the BSP, the spending priorities of OFW households are:

“The number of OFW households that use their remittances to purchase food and other household needs decreased in the fourth quarter of 2021,” Alegre said.

He said remittance proceeds used to purchase household appliances or durable consumer goods also declined to 12.9% from 15.1%, as did the percentage of OFW households intending buying a house or a car fell in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, the BSP said that households that received remittances in the past 12 months continued to be satisfied with the services of remittance agencies, with a confidence index of 91.2%, above the 82 , 2% recorded during the third quarter survey.

The CES covered 5,495 respondents, including 325 OFW households. It was carried out from October 1 to 13 when the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjacent provinces were again placed under enhanced community quarantine due to the emergence of the more contagious Delta variant.

BSP now expects remittances to increase 6% this year and 4% next year after falling 0.8% last year, as hundreds of OFWs have been displaced in host countries due to the impact of the global health crisis.

The latest central bank data showed personal remittances rose 5.4% to $ 28.82 billion from January through October, from $ 27.35 billion last year.

Personal remittances include all current cash or in-kind transfers made by OFWs as well as other household-to-household transfers between Filipinos who have migrated overseas and their families in the Philippines.

Likewise, remittances from banks rose 5.6 percent to $ 23.12 billion from a level of $ 21.89 billion a year ago.

Personal and cash remittances posted gains after contracting 1.7% in January.