Savings Index Declines Slightly in April

May 12, 2015

News
Macroeconomics

Savings Index declines slightly in April as the environment for saving remains challenging

The Nationwide UK (Ireland) / ESRI Savings Index, which measures overall sentiment towards saving, decreased to 114 in April, from 117 in March.

The Savings Environment sub-index, which asks if people believe that the current period is a good time to save and whether government policy encourages people to save, decreased by 3 points. This decreased to 101 in April, from 105 in March.

The share of respondents who believe now is a good time to save fell marginally to 32 per cent in April. This represents consumers becoming more cautious regarding the savings environment. There was also a decrease in the proportion of respondents who believe now is a bad time to save, from 35 per cent to 31 per cent this month. Meanwhile, the proportion viewing government policy as being encouraging of saving decreased to 7.6 per cent in April from 9.2 per cent in March.

The Savings Attitude sub-index, which asks respondents about their saving behaviour and how they feel about the amount they save, fell from 129 in March to 125 in April. However, the three-month moving average rose from 123 to 125 in April.

The proportion of those who save regularly continued to rise to 43 per cent, from 40 per cent in March. This increase appears to be driven mainly by the decrease in the proportion of those who previously did not save, which dropped from 37.9 per cent to 34.5 per cent this month. The share of those satisfied with the amount they save decreased from 20 per cent in March to 17 per cent in April.

When asked about their preference as to how they might allocate any money over and above their everyday needs, the share of respondents who report that they would use the surplus to pay off debts, including their mortgage, increased slightly to 42 per cent from 41 per cent in March. A further 9 per cent said they would spend it, while 10 per cent said they would invest it. The proportion of respondents who would choose to save the money remains at 40 per cent for the third month in a row.