Status: 04/21/2023 3:30 p.m
In 2022, the financial assets of people in Germany fell to 7.25 trillion euros. But at the end of the year the sum rose again: This was thanks to the good stock market development – and the hard-working Germans.
Price losses on the markets reduced the financial assets of Germans overall in 2022. Despite a recovery at the end of the year, the assets of private households consisting of cash, securities, bank deposits and claims against insurance companies were around 7.254 trillion euros – and thus below the record value of 2021 of 7.624 trillion euros. The Deutsche Bundesbank announced this today in Frankfurt. The data do not show how the sum is distributed.
Compared to the previous quarter, however, financial assets rose again at the end of the year by a whole 111 billion thanks to savings and a recovery on the stock markets. According to the information, shares increased significantly in value to 32 billion euros. Previously, financial assets had fallen three quarters in a row compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to the stock market turbulence after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Households build up cash holdings
A large part of household wealth continues to consist of cash and bank deposits. In the fourth quarter, private households once again significantly increased their holdings by EUR 35 billion to a total of around EUR 3.114 trillion.
Cash and sight deposits, which usually include interest-free current accounts and overnight money, are particularly popular: the volume here totaled around 2,241 billion euros at the end of the year.
The advantage from the saver’s point of view: They can access their money quickly when needed. Call money and the like are also increasingly yielding something again since the European Central Bank (ECB) has been raising interest rates in the fight against high inflation. However, high inflation is eating away at savings.
Debt ratio falls slightly
The liabilities of private households increased in the fourth quarter to the previous quarter by twelve billion euros to 2.137 trillion euros. Since economic output increased at the same time, the debt ratio fell slightly to 55.2 percent. In addition to cash, bank deposits and securities, the Bundesbank also takes claims against insurance companies into account when calculating financial assets.
After deducting debt, the net financial assets of private households increased from 5,019 billion euros in the third quarter of 2022 to around 5,117 billion euros at the end of the year. Real estate is not included in the data.
Pension and insurance claims, on the other hand, lost 21 billion euros in value as interest rates rose. The ECB had turned around in July 2022 after years of zero and negative interest rate policies. By the end of 2022, the monetary authorities had raised interest rates four times in a row. As a result, private households bought bonds to the tune of twelve billion euros, which have become more attractive again because of the higher interest rates. On the other hand, according to the data, they acquired fewer shares in investment funds than at the beginning of the year.