Five-year household savings rate positive for first time since 1989-1994 — English
Households have together saved more than they spent over the past 5 consecutive years – the first time this has happened since 1989-94, Bill English says.
New Zealand households have together saved more than they spent over the past five consecutive years – the first time this has happened since 1989-94, Finance Minister Bill English says.
The latest revised annual National Accounts (Income and Expenditure) compiled by Statistics New Zealand show aggregate household savings – which includes the impact of debt repayment - totalled $2.8 billion in the year ended March 2014.
This represents a positive savings rate of 2.1 per cent of household disposable income.
The revised figures show that before 2009 – the year after the National Government was first elected - the household savings rate had been negative in all but one year since 1995, the Finance Minister says.
“This news is the latest in a series of results that show households are getting ahead and that the economy is steadily rebalancing towards higher savings and away from borrowing and consumption,” Mr English says.
“Combined with average hourly earnings growing more than twice as fast as inflation, a sustained period of historically low interest rates, falling unemployment and good economic growth, the household savings data adds to a picture of New Zealanders making sensible decisions to strengthen their own balance sheets.
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Five-year household savings rate positive for first time since 1989-1994 — English
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