Analysis of the Interdependencies Among the Factors Influencing the Amount a nd Structure of the Private Savings

Zsuzsanna Szeles, Katalin Huzdik 
(Budapesti Metropolitan University, Hungary)

Abstract: Our main objective is to present the amount and composition of private savings in Hungary and in Europe. Making savings is primarily the interest of individuals, but it also serves the interests of the state as it must recognize the potential in the individuals’ financial decision-making behaviour. The state can achieve real results through various supports: it can increase the amount of savings, thereby increase the self-supporting nature of the general public. Unfortunately, a significant part of Hungarian households does not have any savings. On the contrary, they have a significant loan portfolio, the proportion of which (in percentage) is a high net income of the households. The primary objective of our research is to present the savings rate in Hungary and the European countries between 2004 and 2015, as well as to examine how the amount of the savings and the individual savings of different forms have changed in Visegrad countries. In 2009, the EU-28 households had the highest savings rate (13%), but they have not been able to approach this value since 2017 and presented a value below 10% in 2017. We used trend analysis to find differences between different saving rates of examined countries.

Key words: savings rate; household income; trend analysis; composition of savings

         JEL codes: E21, H24