In the fourth quarter of 2009, in both the Eurozone (EA16) and the EU27, the seasonally adjusted household saving rate was 15.1% and 13.3% respectively. In the US the rate was 3.6% and in Japan just above 2.0%, compared with 15% in 1990.

The rates defined as personal savings related to disposable incomes, were almost unchanged compared with the previous quarter, while the household investment rate decreased. In the Eurozone, household disposable income fell by 0.2% in real terms. These data come from a detailed set of quarterly European sector accounts released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and the European Central Bank (ECB). The Eurozone rate has not changed much since the euro was launched in 1999. In the EU27, in the past decade, France and German have been the biggest savers with countries such as Finland and Denmark with negative rates. Ireland rose from 4.9% in 2006 to over 11% in 2009.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the seasonally adjusted gross saving rate of households was 13.3% in the EU27, the same as in the third quarter of 2009. In the Eurozone, the household saving rate was 15.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with 15.2% in the previous

In the Eurozone, the household saving rate was almost unchanged as there was a fall in both real final consumption expenditure (-0.1%) and real disposable income (-0.2%). Real disposable income decreased slightly, as household nominal disposable income grew less (+0.4%) than the prices of goods and services consumed by households (+0.5%).

The increase (+0.4%) in household nominal disposable income was mainly due to net social benefits and taxes, which each contributed +0.2 percentage points (pp). Compensation of employees (wage costs) and gross operating surplus (together with mixed income which accrues to self-employed households) each contributed +0.1 pp. Net property income and other current transfers had a negative impact (-0.3 pp).

The European Union (EU27) consists of 27 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom plus the European Central Bank and the EU institutions.

The Eurozone (EA16) consists of 16 Member States: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland plus the European Central Bank.