“In the first quarter of 2022, the savings rate increased by 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) in the Euro Zone and 0.2 p.p. in the EU, compared to the previous quarter”, says the European statistics office. In the fourth quarter of 2021 it was at 14.9% in the Eurozone and at 14.4% in the EU.

In a context of war in Ukraine and a rise in the inflation rate, Eurostat also states that the household savings rate has increased in seven of the 14 Member States for which data are available, and until March the largest increases were observed in the Denmark (+5.1 p.p), Belgium (+2.9 p.p) and Finland (+1.2 p.p).

On the other hand, in the first quarter of this year, the savings rate fell in seven Member States, with the biggest drops being recorded in Austria (-5.2 p.p), Spain (-2.1 p.p) and Portugal (- 1.4 p.p).