The decline in savings in Germany has thus been somewhat weaker than in the United States, although it stands in marked contrast to the development in other countries (such as France and the United Kingdom).9 Since German unification the declining trend in savings also contrasts quite clearly with the cyclical savings pattern which – although quite often eclipsed by special factors – had prevailed in Western Germany since 1970 in line with the development of households’ real incomes.
The pro-cyclical savings behaviour suggests that German households basically preferred as steady a supply of consumer goods as possible. In doing so, they were guided by the experience that changes in income growth are often not of a permanent nature. Furthermore, there exists the tendency of adjusting only gradually to a new income situation.