Household savings in Poland – size, structure, and main determinants

Abstract

Household savings are major elements that determine, alongside other factors, the equilibrium in the financial market and thus in the national economy. They are an important macroeconomic variable and a potential source of investments and economic growth. They play a major role in the money circulation in the economy and create conditions for the normal functioning of both the whole market and the households themselves. Given the macro- and microeconomic significance of the savings, they are discussed at length in specialist literature. Their volume and structure are affected by a broad variety of factors, both subjective and objective, internal and external, those connected with the macro- and micro-environment (Harasim, 2010, pp. 29-30). They can be analysed from the perspective of factors determining the decisions of an individual household, where qualitative factors are important, and of macroeconomic equilibrium, where quantitative factors and conditions prevail. In the case of individual household decisions, these are inter alia financial, fiscal, economic, legal, technological, demographic, psychological, sociological, educational, and cultural factors. The literature classifies them in diverse ways, depending on criteria adopted by a given author. The major schools of economics claim economic crises are as a rule accompanied by increasing rates of household savings. This is primarily, though not exclusively, due to precautionary measures. The size and structure of household savings in Poland have changed in recent years. The pandemic experience suggests the emergence of savings which are as if forced by a reducing ‘activity’ of households. The war in Ukraine is an additional factor affecting not so much the volume as the structure of the savings. This paper is an attempt at answering the question to what extent these factors have determined the size and structure of household savings in Poland.  The following research methods are applied: a review of literature and state of the art on household savings in the Polish economy, a diagnosis and interpretation of available data concerning the volume and structure of household savings in Poland.