The household savings rate in the euro zone rose to 15.3% in the first quarter of 2024, the highest since the second quarter of 2021, the European Union (EU) statistical office announced this Thursday .
Data released by Eurostat reveal that the household savings rate in the euro zone stood at 15.3% in the first three months of this year, which compares with a percentage of 13.6% in the same period of 2023 and with 14 .1% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The statistical office highlights that this “represents the highest savings rate since the second quarter of 2021”, during the covid-19 crisis, when a percentage of 19% was recorded, which has been decreasing since then .
According to Eurostat, this increase is explained by the fact that gross disposable income increased (+2.1%) at a faster rate than consumption (+0.8%).
At the same time, the household investment rate in the single currency area decreased slightly from 9.6% to 9.5% in the first quarter of 2024, which is also the “lowest value since the first quarter 2021”, when an identical percentage was recorded.
This slight decrease was due to the fact that gross fixed capital formation increased (1.1%) at a lower rate than gross disposable income (+2.1%).
According to the same data, in this period, the weight of corporate profits (non-financial corporations) decreased from 40.3% to 39.5% in the euro area, being in this case “the lowest value since the second quarter of 2020”.
Regarding the investment rate of companies in the euro zone, it increased slightly from 22.0% to 22.3% in the first quarter of 2024, according to Eurostat, which justifies the previous peaks seen in other years with “large imports of intellectual property products that reflect the effects of globalization”.
