We save little and invest little. Poles at the end of the EU despite the greatest increase in income
The average value of the assets of an average Pole after deducting liabilities, i.e. the so-called net assets in the middle of this year. exceeded only 4.3 times (436%) the sum of monthly disposable income and changes in pension capital – according to the Eurostat report. We write “only” because only Romanians had worse results among the countries whose data were collected by the EU statistical office.
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The Danes turned out to be the richest, with assets equal to almost 22 times their monthly income. and Italians with almost 14 times. Germans have a net worth of 10 times their income. As much as 53 percent (data from 2024 according to destatis) However, Germans live in rented apartments, which may be the reason for the relatively low value of net wealth per person. Low, but still more than twice as high as in the case of a Pole when compared to earnings.
Poles put aside only 56 percent. what Czechs do in relation to their income. And we like to compare ourselves with the Czechs, because they started after the communist era with only a slightly higher ceiling. But why should we be surprised that we earned so little, since we spend a relatively small part of our earnings on something other than consumption?
Low savings rate of Poles
Formally, the Minister of Finance can be happy about this, because VAT revenues from consumption are higher, but the savings rate of the average Pole was only 12.8% in the second quarter of 2025. disposable income (increased by the change in pension assets) and here in Europe only Romanians save less.
The French save the most (26.9% of disposable income with the change in pension reserves), followed by the Swedes (25.5%) and the Dutch (25.2%). In the case of the Czechs it is 17.1 percent and the Germans – 18.9 percent. Since we save relatively little for the future, this wealth naturally does not increase like in others. But there is improvement.
12.8 percent Savings rates in the second quarter, although not impressive compared to other European countries, are ours the second highest quarterly result since the end of 2020. A year ago, in the same period, we saved only less than 10% in the second quarter. income, and in the first quarter of this year only 0.2 percent Improvement of the indicator by 2.8 percentage points. year to year is the highest in Europe.
Minister Domański is less happy about this, as he was counting on greater consumption and higher VAT revenues. But the increase in savings is clearly the result of improving our disposable income.
Disposable income in Poland grew the fastest in the EU
In real terms, i.e. taking into account prices, disposable income (salaries plus benefits) in a 12-month period increased in Poland by 7.8% until June. – according to Eurostat data. Compared to the EU, this is an impressive increase, because the second largest was 2.4%. y/y and recorded by Portugal.
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This 7.8 percent this is the second fastest growth in Poland since the third quarter of 2020. It should be mentioned that there are countries where disposable incomes have been falling. Specifically, it concerns the Czech Republic, which is geographically close to us (-0.2% yoy) and Austria (-0.6% yoy).
Poles' investments in real estate
We also invest relatively little in real estate, i.e. in the purchase of new apartments and renovation of existing ones. Here we are again in penultimate place in the EU, because in the second quarter of this year. we spent only 4.91% for this purpose. our disposable income.
But this time Romanians are not in favor of us, because they allocated 6.1% for this purpose. income. Interestingly, the Swedes were behind us with only 4.7 percent. income allocated to housing investments.
Unlike the Swedes, however, in our case there is a decline in similar investments year-on-year by 0.4 percentage points, which should worry both developers and producers of materials for renovating apartments.
Where does our reluctance to save come from?
The low propensity to save and invest is, of course, due to the fact that we earn too little to save or buy a property. It is not without reason that Romanians are behind us in the savings rate. But there is also the other side of the coin, i.e. prioritizing current consumption over future consumption.
The higher the inflation, the less willing we are to store value, and the more willing we are to buy on an ongoing basis, because in a year the same thing will have a higher price. Therefore, there is a noticeable improvement in the propensity to save, because inflation has decreased significantly.
More money for savings is certainly not the result of favorable deposit offers in banks. According to NBP data banks paid an average of 3.4% for a one-year deposit in August. gross annually with inflation of 2.9 percent y/y in August and the forecast also 2.9%. for 2026. Theoretically, if we put money in the bank, we will be ahead in a year. But this is only if you do not count the so-called Belka tax. When we take it into account, it turns out that in a year we will buy less for the deposit plus interest (net 2.7%) than now. For this reason, Poles have recently been more willing to look at investment funds.
According to IZFiA, as much as PLN 4.4 billion flowed into the funds in September, and the funds added a total investment profit of PLN 3.3 billion. Net asset value of investment funds in the 12 months to September increased by PLN 38 billion to PLN 407 billion. They recorded an increase of PLN 24 billion bond funds run by PKO TFIincluding: two PPK funds (2035 and 2040). However, the money put into these funds went mainly to treasury bonds. You might as well buy these bonds yourself, avoiding the fund's commission. And that's what people do anyway.
This year we spent on new issues of government retail bonds an average of PLN 6.5 billion per monthof which PLN 1.1 billion went to rolling over expiring bonds and exchanging them for new issues. It was like that until September. But will this continue? This can now be doubted, because with the decline in interest rates, the Ministry of Finance has reduced the attractiveness of this type of debt securities since October, lowering the interest rate by an average of 0.25 percentage points. In November, the cut will be another 0.25 percentage point.
In addition, some of the bonds bore interest according to inflation plus a margin. With four-year bonds bearing interest in line with inflation plus a margin of 1.5 percentage points, assuming an inflation rate of 2.9%. after deducting the “Belka tax”, we will be left with less than 3.6 percent. interest on hand, i.e. 0.7 percentage points. above inflation. Well, the money is blocked for four years.
There is also a relatively safe option to invest in corporate bond funds. However, during the year only PLN 2.3 billion of capital was added to funds investing in the debt of Polish companies.
Looking at the proportions of the shifting capital, it can be said that Poles avoid risky investments, perhaps except for the group that buys cryptocurrencies. However, here we return to the issue of the level of earnings and willingness to invest in general. If we earn better, we will be more willing to invest part of the capital remaining to us each month in the stock market or other forms of higher-risk investments.
Author: Jacek Frączyk, editor of Business Insider Polska
