An important determinant of consumer spending is access to credit by consumers through various lending institutions. These institutions include banks, credit and employee associations, social security agencies, cooperatives and other non-banks and informal institutions. However, data on consumer or household indebtedness are available only in reports on credit cards and real estate and auto loans extended by banks that are monitored regularly by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). All other data are either not easily accessible or not available in organised formats. Hence, the data used in this paper are limited to those found in the reports submitted by.
