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FACT FILE
HOW DOES SA’S HOUSEHOLD SAVING RATE COMPARE WITH THAT OF OTHER COUNTRIES? HOUSEHOLD savings is defined as the household’s net disposable income (“net” means after deductions such as tax) plus an adjustment for pension savings less household consumption expenditure. The household saving rate represents how much a household is able to save,
including what is going into retirement funds, as a percentage of disposable income. It thus shows how much households are adding to their wealth. By this definition, South Africans are getting poorer, with a negative rate for 2016, 2018 and 2019. They are among the
three worst countries in the table below (the others being Portugal and Greece). Interestingly, of the four countries that reported their rates for 2020, all saw a rise in saving during the pandemic, with Germany increasing its rate from 10.87% to 16.23%.
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HOUSEHOLD SAVING RATES PER COUNTRY 2016-2020 2016
2017
2018
2019
Australia
5.20
4.29
3.89
10.26
France
8.18
8.37
8.65
9.11
Germany
10.20
10.59
10.93
10.87
Greece
-13.08
-13.42
-13.98
-11.55
Italy
3.00
2.56
2.53
2.49
Japan
3.27
2.62
4.29
Mexico
13.98
13.02
10.25
14.69
Netherlands
10.25
8.79
9.12
10.01
Norway
6.89
6.55
5.90
7.61
Poland
1.72
0.43
-0.73
1.43
Portugal
-1.31
-2.24
-2.47
-2.07
Russia
9.51
8.71
7.35
South Africa
-0.91
0.20
-0.10
-0.25
Spain
2.97
1.64
1.43
2.01
Sweden
13.33
12.19
13.37
16.08
Switzerland
17.39
16.45
16.00
16.17
United Kingdom
2.19
-0.04
0.34
0.74
United States
6.99
7.19
7.96
2020
16.23 10.32
15.52 4.15
17.61
Source: OECD
