COVID-19 and the increase in household savings: an update

Maarten Dossche, Georgi Krustev and Stylianos Zlatanos

Economic Bulletin Boxes, 2021, vol. 5

Abstract: The propensity of households to save has reached extraordinary levels since early 2020. This box analyses the drivers of this surge and tries to infer what they imply for private consumption as the pandemic is brought under control. On the one hand, the spike in household savings mostly comprises involuntary savings held to a large extent in the form of liquid assets, while the effects of the pandemic on household income have been limited. On the other hand, the additional savings are concentrated among older and higher-income households which, together with the services-led nature of the slump in consumption, suggests that these savings have only a limited potential to boost private consumption. Overall, the underlying drivers of the recent surge in household savings do not suggest much of an additional boost to the expected rebound in private consumption in the coming year. JEL Classification: E21, E32

Keywords: Business cycle fluctuations; Consumption; Saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-08
Note: 3577821
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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