Although the European Union household saving rate decreased in the third quarter of 2020, it was still +4.5 percentage points (pp) higher than it was one year ago, informed Eurostat. The main reason for the year-on-year increase is that the household final consumption expenditure was still 3.6 percent lower in the European Union than it was one year ago. Household gross disposable income recovered and was 1.5 percent higher in the third quarter of 2020 (compared with the third quarter of 2019). Compared with the third quarter of 2019, the household saving rate increased in all Member States in the third quarter of 2020. The highest year-on-year increase was observed for the Netherlands (+7.9 pp), followed by Denmark (+7.7 pp). In most of the countries, however, the year-on-year increase was lower than it was the previous quarter. This is because household individual consumption expenditure recovered from the previous quarter, though it was still lower than it was one year ago in all Member States but two (Poland +3.8 percent and Portugal +0.2 percent). The largest year-on-year decreases in household consumption were observed in Spain (-8.5 percent) and Italy (-7.4 percent), informed Eurostat.
