The global phenomenon of “forced savings” during the pandemic has resulted in significantly elevated savings levels in Australia according to the Allianz Global Wealth Report 2021: Saving from home, which now sits 13th in the world on a table of net financial assets per capita.
Gross financial assets of Australian households rose by 5.2 per cent in 2020 according to the report, after increasing by 12.8 per cent in 2019.
The main rivers for this were bank deposits, AIA states, which increased by “a whopping” 12.4 per cent, the largest increase since the GFC in 2008 (19.3 per cent).
“Almost one half of fresh savings for Australian households in 2020 ended up in bank accounts, against a portfolio share of just 22 per cent,” Allianz states.
Australia now ranks 13th place in a ranking of the 20 richest countries according to the report, with the USA and Switzerland number one and two by a wide margin ahead of countries like Denmark, the Netherlands and Singapore.
“For 2021, a similar dynamic development can be expected, mainly thanks to a buoyant stock market and generous social transfer in the first half,” AIA states.
