Filipinos spend 331 percent of monthly income on Christmas purchases — study

A GLOBAL study by a payments company revealed that during the holiday season, Filipinos spend around 331 percent of their monthly income for Christmas purchases for the family.

According to the study by WorldRemit, Filipinos spend an average of P37,106 during the holidays.

The study by WorldRemit revealed that Filipinos spend 45 percent of their Christmas costs on food, 48 percent for gifts, and 7 percent for holiday decor.

It said the spending is spurred by families who start making plans to celebrate the yuletide season with unique traditions, meals and gifts as the year comes to a close.

Christmas celebrations in the Philippines is touted to be the longest in the world, which would begin as early as September and extend until January of the following year.. This makes it challenging for many families to afford the basic costs of Christmas. Without remittances into countries like the Philippines, celebrating the holidays would be near impossible.

The multi-country study by WorldRemit was conducted to determine the true cost of Christmas in 14 countries, mining data to understand the average costs of traditional Christmas meals, decorations, and gifts.

These countries include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, the Philippines, Mexico, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Rwanda, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Uganda.

More than 244 million people are classified as immigrants around the world and account for large percentages of populations in countries like the United States (14.4 percent of total population), UK (9 percent), Australia (30 percent) and Canada (21.5 percent).

During the holidays, immigrants and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are often unable to celebrate with their families in-person and find themselves working to support not only themselves but also their families and communities back home.

The Christmas season is the perfect time to celebrate old traditions and create new ones with friends and family across the globe. One tradition that is all too well known for Filipino households with friends and families overseas, is sending money in-lieu of gifts,” said Earl Melivo, Country Director of World Remit Philippines.

With more than 244 million people worldwide classified as immigrants, and more than 2.2 million OFWs, we are making it easy to share love and joy over the holiday season,“ Melivo added.

Christmas is one of the primary reasons immigrants and migrants send money back to their home country.  It is important for remittance senders to be able to make the Christmas wishes of their loved ones a reality despite the high cost of coveted seasonal items, food, and the overall impact COVID-19 has had on supply chain and inflation.

Relative to Filipinos, 10 out of the 14 countries observed spent more than 50 percent of their monthly household income during the season of giving. Meanwhile, the largest send markets like Canada, UK, USA, Australia, France typically only spend less than 3 percent of their annual income during the holidays.

To learn more about the study and see full results, visit https://www.worldremit.com/en/cost-of-christmas.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.