In 2021, assets placed in regulated savings accounts increased by 4.2 billion euros, reaching 274.4 billion euros, according to data compiled from nine banks by the Belgian financial newspaper L'Echo. This year, holdings of around $300.05 billion have been reached, for the first time exceeding the EUR 300 billion threshold.
The continuing growth of saving accounts is surprising, as inflation is much higher than the interest on savings accounts.
However, inflation is on the rise and consumer prices have risen by no less than 5.71% in a year, while most savings accounts yield just 0.11% and current accounts are generally not remunerated.
A trend among Belgian citizens shows that the pandemic has contributed to an increase in savings and current account holdings, which led households to save more. They are increasingly looking for a better return on their savings, with investment funds proving the most popular investments.
BETTER FINANCE has been warning about financial repression for some time now
Already in 2013, after the financial crisis of 2007, BETTER FINANCE published an article on this topic: Financial Repression: the lesser evil or institutionalised theft?
In the same year , financial repression was one of the topics discussed at an international conference organised by BETTER FINANCE in Vienna. In 2016 the European Central Bank intensified the financial repression of European Savers by further lowering its main interest rate from 0.5 to 0.25 %. Unfortunately, in the post-pandemic era, financial repression has anything but been forgotten and BETTER FINANCE continues to raise its voice to combat this major issue for individual savers and investors.
This information has been published by the financial newspaper L'Echo. The original article is written in French. You can read it in full here.