Belgians have more than 300 billion euro on their savings accounts
It is often said that we in Belgium are a nation of savers. New figures released by the National Bank of Belgium confirm this. At the end of last year the total amount of cash deposited on savings accounts at banks in Belgium topped 300 billion euro. At the end of 2021 and in the summer of 2022 total savings exceeded 300 billion euro. However, this amount fell under the 300-billion mark during the latter months of last year but increased again in December to end the year at 300.331 billion euro.
The relatively low rate of interest on savings accounts during 2022 and the high rate of inflation that made the cost of living more expensive meant that last year the total amount saved hardly increased at all compared with what it was at the end of 2021. In August 2022 the total amount saved on Belgian savings accounts was 16 billion euro down on what it was in December 2021.
Meanwhile, other savings options such as time deposit accounts (also known as term accounts) that offer higher rates of interest than traditional savings accounts are growing in popularity. On Thursday the financial daily ‘De Tijd’ calculated that during the last 6 months of 2022 the total amount saved on time deposit accounts increased by 7 billion euro to its highest level since 2017.