Inflation disaster: 164 billion euros of savings burned
Italian families, to face record inflation, will put their hands on savings and deposits will suffer a “scissors” of 163.8 billion euros in the two-year period 2022-2023. This is what emerges from an elaboration by the Cgia Research Office which hypothesizes that the 1,152 billion euros present in bank current accounts do not register any changes over the period of time taken into consideration, and which forecasts that inflation will grow by almost 15 percent (+8.1 last year and +6.1 this year). A sort of “asset” worth almost 164 billion euros which will “cost” an average of 6,338 euros to each single household.
At a territorial level, in the two-year period 2022-2023 the highest cost will be suffered by the families of the richest regions: in Trentino Alto Adige the loss of average purchasing power will be equal to 9,471 euros, in Lombardy 7,533, in Emilia Romagna 7,261 and in Veneto of 7,253. At the provincial level, on the other hand, families residing in Bolzano will be particularly affected, who will suffer an average withdrawal of 10,542 euros. Milan follows with 8,500, Trento with 8,461, Lecco with 8,201 and Treviso with 7,948. The families least “affected”, however, will be those in the province of Syracuse with 3,842 euros, Trapani with 3,595 and Crotone with 3,130.
More than 30 years later, many still remember with great indignation the extraordinary levy of 6 per thousand applied by the then Amato government on Italian current accounts. In the night between 9 and 10 July 1992, in fact, that measure cost Italian families 5,250 billion lire, or 2.7 billion euros. Discounting this amount, the withdrawal stands at 5.3 billion euros; practically an economic “sacrifice” 31 times lower than that estimated by the CGIA Research Office (163.8 billion euros) in the two-year period 2022-2023. According to the craftsmen’s association, banks must now raise interest on deposits.
If 14 years ago the lending rate was 0.75 per cent, 2 months ago it stood at 0.12 per cent, “causing” a disadvantage for savers of 0.63 per cent. In other words, compared to 10,000 euros deposited in the current account, compared to 2009 we find ourselves with 63 euros less in a year.
If, as many experts maintain, by the end of 2023 the rate rose to 4 per cent, reaching the same level reached between July 2007 and June 2008, on our hypothetical 10 thousand euros deposited in the bank we would lose 107 euros. These are not important figures, however, observes the CGIA, if the banks were to recognize again a slight increase in lending rates on the free sums deposited in current accounts, customers could at least cover the fixed costs.
What, on the other hand, has been practiced by the institutes on tied sums, even if, very often, for many current account holders, extricating themselves from a “sea” of offers is extremely difficult. An economic effort, the one that the banks would have to support if they adjusted the rates on unconstrained savings upwards, easily sustainable, given that things have gone very well in the last year.
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