The gross household savings ratio, a measure of how much money people are saving or using to pay down debt, climbed from 12.9 per cent to 18.5 per cent in the second quarter of this year. The equivalent figure for the second quarter of 2010 was 19.6 per cent.
The latest figures from the CSO show that households had gross savings of €4.3 billion in the second quarter, down from €4.7 billion last year but ahead of the €3.3 billion in the first quarter. Traditionally, a fall in the savings rate should translate into higher consumption.
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