Dutch consumers continue to save despite the low savings interest rate. At the end of 2019, Dutch households had a total of EUR 368.2 billion in savings accounts. This is 12.6 billion euros more than at the end of 2018, according to figures from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).
The Dutch Central Bank concludes that a lower interest rate or the prospect of no interest rate has hardly any effect on savings behaviour. According to Major Markets Trading, there could be two reasons for this:
Consumers may be insufficiently aware of which alternatives exist to the low savings interest rates. Since many people hold their savings in regular savings accounts, and not in deposit accounts, flexibility and the ability to access the available savings at any time seems important. A possible alternative to saving could be Peer-to-Peer-Lending (P2P) or crypto staking. In view of the strong rise of so-called Fintech companies, more and more consumers seem to get along well with online providers of financial services.
A second reason for consumers’ savings behaviour is probably very much people-specific. For many people, saving still gives a certain sense of security and learned behaviour is difficult to change. The habit of saving money started for most people in their childhood, when they received a savings account and a piggy bank as a gift from their bank.
The complete news item of De Nederlandsche Bank can be read here in Dutch and in English.
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