Savings Barometer, 4th quarter 2018
Households borrowed less
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2019-02-21 9.30
Households’ financial savings were negative and amounted to SEK 4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, which was less than in the corresponding quarter of 2017. During the quarter, the Stockholm Stock Exchange fell, and households sold SEK 9 billion net in equity funds. The annual growth rate of households’ loans dropped and amounted to 5.2 percent.
New savings in financial assets was SEK 53 billion, while debts increased by SEK 57 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, which resulted in minus SEK 4 billion in financial savings. Fund sales contributed most to the financial savings, as well as net sales of premium bonds and structured products.
Households’ net borrowing – new loans minus amortisation – amounted to SEK 54 billion in the quarter, which is SEK 4 billion less than in the corresponding quarter in 2017. Households’ net borrowing amounted to SEK 217 billion in total in 2018.
The annual growth rate of loans was 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, which is a decrease of 0.3 percentage points compared with the previous quarter. The growth rate has not been this low in four years. Households’ loans amounted to SEK 4 229 billion at the end of 2018. Households’ loans consist of loans in banks and housing credit institutions, as well as CSN student loans and other loans.
Interest in new tenant-owned apartments lower in 2018
Net purchases of apartments with changing rights of tenancy to tenant-owned apartments and newly produced tenant-owned apartments amounted to SEK 9 billion in the last quarter of 2018, which was SEK 2 billion less than in the third quarter of 2018. In 2018, net purchases of apartments with changing rights of tenancy to owner-occupied apartments and newly produced tenant-owned apartments amounted to SEK 38 billion. In comparison, corresponding net purchases in 2016 and 2017 amounted to SEK 48 billion and SEK 51 billion respectively. Households’ ownership of tenant ownership rights is a financial asset and is included in the Savings Barometer. Tangible assets such as one- or two-dwelling buildings with ownership rights are not included in the Savings Barometer.
Households’ ownership in tenant-owned apartments amounted to SEK 2 385 billion at the end of the fourth quarter in 2018, which corresponds to nearly one fifth of financial assets for the households.
Individual financial savings remain negative
Households’ financial savings were negative and amounted to SEK 4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, while individual financial savings excluding accruals was negative and amounted to SEK 25 billion. Individual financial savings excluding accruals, which shows savings in more liquid assets, was less negative than in the fourth quarter during the past two years. Financial savings is lower than total financial savings in a single quarter is mainly due to exclusion of occupational and premium pension savings from individual savings.
Households’ financial net wealth, measured as financial assets minus liabilities, amounted to SEK 9 083 billion at the end of the quarter.
Definitions and explanations
Financial savings is calculated as the difference between transactions in financial assets and transactions in liabilities.
No major revisions or methodology changes are published in the Savings Barometer. These are instead published in the Financial Accounts, where there is more time for calculations and reconciliation with other sectors. However, minor revisions can occur due to, for instance, revised primary statistics.
In connection with the publication of the Savings Barometer for the fourth quarter of 2018, the entire time series will be updated from the first quarter 2015 onwards with the revisions introduced in the Financial Accounts’ publication on 19 December.
More detailed descriptions of major revisions are described in the Financial Accounts:
Next publishing will be
2019-05-23 at 09:30.
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.