Irish households saved just under €500 million per week last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal.
Household savings rose to €25 billion in 2024, up from €22 billion in 2023, with the majority of the money invested in long-term assets such as housing.
Savings, defined by the CSO as the proportion of income left over following all current spending, increased to 14.2 per cent of income, up from 13.6 per cent in 2023, according to the office’s institutional sector accounts report for 2024. That marked the highest quarterly savings rate in nearly two years.
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“Of this €25 billion, €16 billion was invested in fixed assets – mainly new homes – with the remainder invested in financial assets, such as deposits, pension funds, and reducing financial liabilities such as mortgage borrowing,” said CSO statistician Peter Culhane.
Nationally, despite an increase in the volume of consumer spending and higher prices, households managed to increase savings due to higher earnings from work and increased investment income on the cumulative half a trillion euro in household financial assets, the CSO said.
The report noted Central Bank of Ireland figures that show bank deposits rose by €1.7 billion in the final quarter of last year but that was “largely counterbalanced by growth in loan liabilities” of €1.4 billion. Household consumption rose slightly last year, increasing 2.3 per cent on 2023 after adjusting for inflation.
Government tax receipts also increased, rising to €103 billion last year – of which €31 billion came in the final quarter – and income and wealth tax receipts rose €6.6 billion or 11 per cent to €66.25 billion.
The State recorded an annual surplus of €24 billion, or 5.9 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), with that figure including a significant portion, up to €11 billion of the than €14 billion in corporation tax from Apple. Excluding the Apple money, that would fall to 2.3 per cent.
In the final quarter of the year, the State recorded a surplus of €5.4 billion but social protection payments rose by €1 billion on the same quarter last year to €8.8 billion.
The CSO economist said that the indicators for the country’s economics “as a whole were positive” in 2024, pointing to increases in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 5 per cent.
That annual rise brought GDP to €533 billion, up €23.5 billion on last year’s figure of €510 billion. GNI grew slightly less, at a rate of 4 per cent, to €405 billion.
The annual consumption of goods and services by households and Government rose by €13 billion or 6 per cent last year to €219 billion.
