Netherlands residents still managing to save a lot of cash even after Covid

Households in the Netherlands have continued to increase their savings considerably after the coronavirus crisis, according to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). The country’s central bank said that the total amount the Dutch have in their bank accounts increased again last year by tens of billions of euros.

It is possible that households wanted to have more money as a precaution because of uncertainty about the economy. Additionally, people may have been worried about their own financial situation and security, according to the central bank.

Collectively, everyone in the Netherlands had a total of 562.5 billion euros in their bank accounts last year, 34.1 billion more than the year before. This clearly continues the upward trend from the start of the coronavirus pandemic. During the lockdowns, people found ways to generally consume less, and as a result, a larger amount of the extra money went to the savings account.

The fact that the total amount of savings increased further last year may also be due in part to rising interest rates on savings accounts. Savings interest rates were extremely low last year, but increased again over the course of the year. That made it more interesting for people to put their money in a savings account.

At the same time, interest did not generally yield very much last year. In 2022, a total of about a half-billion euros in interest was credited to savings accounts. That is the lowest amount since the DNB started keeping these figures in the late 1990s. The interest credited to accounts is expected to be higher this year because the savings interest is now slightly higher again.