<!-- Start of picture text --> SAVING, CREDIT, AND FINANCIAL RESILIENCE<br>Saving and borrowing are universal tendencies. People save for future<br>expenses—a large purchase, investments in an education or a business,<br>their needs in old age or in possible emergencies. Or, facing more immediate<br>expenses, they may choose to borrow instead. Global Findex data show how<br>and why people save and borrow and shed light on their financial resilience to<br>unexpected expenses.<br>FIGURE 3.1<br>Saving for the future<br>Saving by method used<br>Adults saving any money in the past year (%), 2014<br>In 2014, 56 percent of adults around the 71 71<br>world reported having saved or set aside<br>World 60<br>money in the past 12 months. Adults in<br>Saved using<br>high-income OECD economies and East Asia 38 41 36 other methods only<br>Saved<br>and the Pacific were the most likely to have 30<br>semiformally<br>done so, with 71 percent reporting that they<br>Saved both formally<br>had saved, followed by those in Sub-Saharan and semiformally<br>Africa (figure 3.1). In other regions between Saved formally<br>30 and 40 percent of adults reported having East Asia& Pacific & CentralEurope High-incomeOECD America &Latin MiddleEast SouthAsia Sub-SaharanAfrica<br>saved in the past 12 months. Asia economies Caribbean<br>Source: Global Findex database.<br>How do people save?<br>People go about saving money in different ways. Globally in 2014, a quarter of adults—or<br>almost half of savers—reported having saved formally in the past 12 months, at a bank<br>or another type of financial institution. The share of adults who did so ranges from 52<br>percent in high-income OECD economies to less than 5 percent in the Middle East (map<br>3.1). Among savers, the share who reported saving formally was more than 70 percent<br>in high-income OECD economies but only about 40 percent in developing economies.<br>Savings behavior varies not only across economies but also by individual characteristics.<br>Just as for owning an account, saving at a financial institution in the past 12 months was<br>more likely to be reported by men and by adults in the richest 60 percent of households<br>within economies. The share of men who reported saving formally was 3–4 percentage<br>points higher than the share of women doing so in both high-income OECD and develop-<br>ing economies. In developing economies the gender gap in formal saving is thus smaller<br>than the gender gap in account ownership (9 percentage points), suggesting that women<br>are more likely to use their accounts to safely set aside money. The gap between adults<br>in the richest 60 percent of households and those in the poorest 40 percent is about 14<br>percentage points, similar to the gap between these groups in account ownership.<br>In developing economies a common alternative to saving at a financial institution is to<br>save semiformally, by using an informal savings clubs or a person outside the family. In<br>2014, 9 percent of adults—or 17 percent of savers—in developing economies reported<br>having saved semiformally in the past year. 1 One common form of informal savings club<br>is a rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA). These associations generally operate<br>THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE 44<br><!-- End of picture text -->