In Italy the saving rate – traditionally one of the industrial world’s highest – has been diminishing for over twenty years. Since the onset of the crisis the decline has sharpened.
The share of national income saved is now below the European average: under 17 per cent, about 4 percentage points less than in the middle of the last decade, compared with 22 per cent in Germany and 18 per cent in France. The decline in the saving rate is due above all to decreasing saving on the part of households.