PH economy savings reach trillion in 2016

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that in 2016, the domestic economy’s savings rose by 9.7 percent to R3.459 trillion compared to the previous year.

Based on its Flow of Funds (FOF) report, which the BSP defines as the summary of financial transactions among the different institutions of the economy and between these institutions and the rest of the world, the domestic economy’s saving and real investments continued to post growth amid global headwinds and uncertainties in 2016.

Of the four categories which includes financial corporations, non-financial corporations, the general government, and the households, the BSP said the non-financial corporations were still the top saver with R2.020 trillion due to profits posted by the manufacturing and construction industries, and services sectors.

The household sector had savings of R614.5 billion in 2016, while the general government sector reported R582.1 billion led by the local government units as tax revenue collections improved, said the BSP. The financial corporations sector has R242.7 billion because of its higher net interest receipts from intensified lending activities of other depository corporations.

The central bank also reported that in 2016, the real investments of the domestic economy increased. Capital accumulation improved by 24.4 percent year-on-year to R3.516 trillion but it is the non-financial corporations sector which registered the biggest capital investment growth of 29.4 percent to R1.992 trillion.

The general government sector posted a 24.3 percent increase in capital accumulation to R828.9 billion. The household sector’s real investments reached R667.4 billion.

“The domestic economy ends its thirteen-year streak of net lending to the rest of the world (ROW) and becomes a net borrower in 2016,” said the BSP.

Net borrowing from ROW totaled R53.4 billion in 2016 as “the saving-investment deficit in the general government and household sectors outweighed the surplus in the financial and non-financial corporations sectors.”

The general government sector continued to be a net borrower with R261.6 billion while the household sector became a net borrower, with R52.9 billion in 2016 after being a net lender since 2000, according to the BSP.