 The distribution and use of Italian households’ savings after the pandemicAndrea Colabella, Elisa Guglielminetti and Concetta Rondinelli No 797, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an unexpected and significant drop in Italian household consumption, leading to a sharp increase in the propensity to save and the accumulation of substantial financial resources. In this paper, we quantify the resources saved during the pandemic and investigate their distribution across households. At the beginning of 2023, the accrued financial assets exceeded €130 billion; while all households, including the less affluent ones, managed to accumulate excess savings, the majority of these assets (more than 60 per cent) are held by the highest-income quintile. Looking ahead, households’ expectations point to an overall reduction in savings. Considering the distribution of financial assets and high-income households’ lower propensity to consume, the accumulated savings drawdown is likely to contribute marginally to the recovery in consumption. At the same time, the hefty increase in leisure-related expenses and the strong recovery in consumer credit could support consumption. Keywords: consumption; Covid-19; financial assets; savings (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_797_23 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC. |
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