Inflation erodes current accounts, $20 billion in 2022

Inflation and the cost of living It reversed Italians’ savings trend and eroded households’ checking accounts. This is what emerged from research conducted by the Italian Independent Banking Federation (FABI). After four years of steady increases, it’s 2022 The total balance of current accounts of households decreased by almost 20 billion euros. From August to November, there was, in fact, a decrease of 18 billion from 1177 billion to 1159 billion, with a decrease of 1.5%. Already in June, compared to May, there was an initial decrease of 10 billion.

The clear reversal of the trend in the cumulative capacity of current account holders, Fabi analysis highlights, comes after a long period of increase in bank deposit balances: at the end of 2017 the total amount was 967 billion, and at the end of 2018 it was 990 billion (+23 billion) , at the end of 2019 at 1044 billion (+54 billion), at the end of 2020 at 1110 billion (+66 billion) and at the end of 2021 at 1144 billion (+34 billion).

If the liquidity accumulated by households in the first seven months of 2022 almost touched 1,180 billion euros, with a growth – albeit slower than in the past – of 0.9% since the beginning of the year, the data for the next four months confirm the fears, now confirm, From “the collapse of purchasing power – Fabi highlights – that forces Italians to draw on their reserves to meet higher costs”.

From July to November, total current accounts decreased by about €20 billion. The total value was 1,178 billion euros in July and 1,159 billion euros at the end of November, a decrease of nearly two percentage points (-1.53%) which shows that the price of the crisis is beginning to be all in the pockets of Italians. .

With inflation and the cost of living The debts of Italian households also increased. In particular, it records Consumer loans increased and personal loans stabilized. Overall, the volume of loans for the two categories at the end of 2022 amounted to 256 billion euros, compared to January of the same year (+1.5%) and exceeding the continuous increase trend since 2017, corresponding to 1.2%. The growth figures in the world of final and non-final loans come as “a slap in the face to market conditions, because it is certainly not low interest rates that drive requests, but rather the growing tendency to pay purchases in installments, which makes Italians’ relationship to the economy and savings ambivalent,” the analysis highlights.