The overseas Filipino workers (OFW) contribute to the Philippines through sending their precious remittances to their loved ones which their family use for their daily needs. A large chunk of which is spent on education. Some spend for the home mortgage or amortization of the house they purchased. For new OFWs, most of their remittances are used to pay the loans they made before their deployment. Very small percentage or almost none is being allocated to buy insurance or prepare for their retirement and savings. For other OFWs, they find investments to put their hard earned money in preparation should they decided to retire or stay home for good.
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OFWs are increasingly allocating their hard-earned dollars to investments, as they look for ways to fund their long-term goals, according to a local bank.
Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Asset Management and Trust Corp. (AMTC) on said the number of their OFW remitters and families who are into investments rises up to 3 times since 2013, according to their latest data.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed 94.2% of OFW households who are benefit from remittances use the money to purchase food and other household needs.
Some 64% said they also use remittances for education, 46.9 % use for medical investment, 22.9 % for payment of their debts and 33.9% put it on savings.
Only 5.2% of OFW families allocate part of their remittances for investment.
But BPI AMTC President Sheila Tan said that OFW families are now beginning a trend where they are considering long-term investments which are foreseen to grow over the years.
In May alone, remittances expanded by 6.9 % to hit $2.7 billion according to BSP report. This brought the average remittance growth of the country to 4.2% in the first five months of the year. 10 % of GDP and 8.3% of gross national income in 2017 was accounted for remittances to the Philippines by the modern day heroes.
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