The government generated a gross savings of P4.232 trillion in 2018, 9.5 percent higher than the previous year, despite trade tensions among the world’s major economies, surging crude oil prices, rising consumer prices in the country, and a weakening peso, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said over the weekend.
“The solid growth in the national saving came on the back of the country’s sound macroeconomic fundamentals,” the BSP said in a statement.
“The capital accumulation of the domestic economy soared 18.2 percent to P4.694 trillion in 2018. This was due mainly to the construction activities of private non-financial corporations and the robust infrastructure spending of the national government,” it said.
With the growth in capital accumulation outpacing the increase in saving, the domestic economy’s net borrowing surged to P458.6 billion in 2018, which was more than four times larger than the P104.1 billion recorded in 2017.