After a prolonged period of negative or marginal changes, in 2014, the disposable income household real estate in the euro area returned to growth (+1%) with favorable effects on various aggregates, including consumption, which increased after six years (+1%) in which marginal increases alternated with severe contractions.
In the same period for ithe savings rate and the investment rate the progressive filing that had characterized the most recent years has ended; in 2014, EMU families saved 12,7% of their income and invested 8,3%. The improvement in the trend of income and consumption was common to all the main economies of the area, albeit with different intensities.
After six years of negative changes, net financial investments by EMU households started to grow again (+26% y/y, at €328 bn) against net acquisitions of non-financial assets unchanged on 2013 (€534 bn) and still 20% below the peak level reached in 2008.
In 2014 households in the euro area invested their new savings above all in insurance/social security policies (€231 bn) and in deposits (€208) but the greatest growth (+53%) concerned the subscription of fund shares municipalities, a phenomenon which was confirmed for the second consecutive year after years of heavy outflows.
Within the financial portfolio of families, deposits continue to constitute the main activity, with a share of 35%, 3 percentage points more than in 2007; in Germany the percentage is close to 40 and in Spain it exceeds it, reaching 44%.
The current low level reached by interest rates affects household investment choices. For some time in the main economies of the euro area the acceleration of current accounts has been confronted with a contraction of longer-term deposits, while the dynamics of investment funds is clearly recovering.
A first sign of greater diversification comes from the recovery in managed savings: last February, the subscriptions of shares in mutual funds in the euro area came close to 9% y/y with increases that exceeded 20% in Spain and Italy.
