This largely reflects the limited spending opportunities during the lockdowns, but it is also a response to the uncertainty that people felt about the future. These extra savings have strengthened household balance sheets and mean that many people now have bigger financial buffers than they had previously. Graph 10  The question is what comes next.
Over the next 6 months, aggregate household income is expected to decline as the pandemic support payments unwind. Normally, when income falls, so too does consumption. But we are not in normal times.