Think of the trips that have fallen through, the cancelled concerts and closed restaurants: people were quite simply unable to spend their money as they wanted to. Others chose to stay home in order to avoid the risk of infection. A survey conducted by the Bundesbank shows that the main reasons for saving more were directly linked to the pandemic.
By contrast, classic precautionary motives, such as concerns about job losses, played only a minor role. [5] Looking forward, this means that once the pandemic has been brought under control, consumption will be kick-started again. Households will want to catch up on some of their forgone consumption.