Record amount paid into savings accounts during coronavirus crisis

In May, Netherlands residents paid a total of 9.4 billion euros into their savings account - the biggest amount yet since central bank DNB started keeping track of this figure in 1998. In total, Netherlands residents now have 384 billion euros in savings.

May is traditionally a month of high savings, as many employees receive their holiday pay. Last may, 6.2 billion euros were paid into savings accounts, in 2018 it was 5 billion euros. “But this year the peak is extra high because people spent less because of the coronavirus,” a spokesperson for DNB said to NOS.

The amount withdrawn from savings accounts was also much less than in previous months. In March, Dutch withdrew 31.6 billion euros, in May it was 14.9 billion euros.

The reason for the higher savings is obvious, ABN Amro economist Nora Neuteboom said to the broadcaster. “People simply could not spend their money because certain sectors were closed due to the corona measures, such as the catering industry. And spending less is automatically more savings.” People also tend to save more in times of economic uncertainty. And while in other years, many people withdrew savings to book vacations in May, this happened a lot less this year, also due to the coronavirus.