Households still saving 19% of their incomes – CSO
New Central Statistics Office figures show that households in the second quarter of this year continued to save more than they did pre-Covid, despite inflationary pressures.
The CSO said the average household saved just over 19% of its income in the second quarter.
While this was down on the Covid pandemic peak of nearly 34%, it was nearly double the level seen in 2019 of 10.4%.
The CSO said the savings habits developed during the Covid restrictions appear to be sticking.
“It might have been expected that with restrictions removed, some of the saving built up over the previous two years would be spent, bringing down the saving rate, but in fact, households continued to accumulate rather than spend,” commented CSO statistician Peter Culhane.
He also said that consumption is increasing, due to inflation but also to higher volumes of goods and services consumed.
“However, households have generally decided not to spend their lockdown savings, but rather to keep their money in the bank,” he added.
The CSO also said today that higher average earnings per worker and the fact that more people were in work drove up incomes in the three months from April to June.
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