The country's total savings grew by 26.6 percent last year as the government continued to reopen the economy and increase the quality of employment, sales, profits and other business activities.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported the total gross savings reached P4.90 trillion in 2022, up by 26.6 percent from the previous year's P3.87 trillion.
Non-financial corporations posted the highest gross savings with P4.16 trillion, followed by financial corporations with P1.54 trillion.
Meanwhile, government and households, including nonprofit institutions serving households, recorded a dissaving of P9 billion and P790 billion, respectively, during the same period.
Among the factors of production, gross operating surplus remained to have the highest share of 55.8 percent in 2022.
This was followed by employee compensation at 36.4 percent and taxes less subsidies on production and imports at 7.8 percent.
The country's gross national disposable income was estimated at P24.93 trillion in 2022, representing a 15.9-percent increase.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said that savings growth last year may be attributed to the gradual reopening of the economy and no more lockdowns taking place.
This led to increased employment, sales, earnings and other economic activities, all of which contributed to larger savings, Ricafort added.
"Higher prices and higher interest rates also partly weighed on demand and somewhat partly contributed to higher savings," he added.
In May, inflation had dropped to 6.1 percent from January's 14-year high of 8.7 percent.
"Going forward, the easing trend in inflation and eventually interest rates, as well as further recovery of the economy from the pandemic, especially hard-hit sectors such as tourism, would help support higher disposable incomes and more savings," Ricafort said.
Source: Manila Times
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