The financial wealth of Italians is growing by 50%, a figure that exceeds 5256 billion euros and liquidity remains the preferred form of allocating savings. Thus a research by Fabi who takes a picture of the financial wealth of Italians ten years after the European Central Bank’s “Whatever it takes” to save the euro.
Fabi photographs the wealth of Italians ten years after the euro rescue
Well, the survey shows that only in 2021, the year of the start of the economic recovery which then vanished with the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, did Italian household savings generate a flow of 320 billion euros, but 61% of the new set aside wealth (143 billion in absolute terms) was allocated to financial assets (mainly shares), 16% (72 billion) to liquidity, the remainder to alternative forms of savings. The weight of shares has therefore progressively increased: with 690 billion it represented 19% of household reserves in 2011, a figure that rose to 1,107 billion in 2020 (22%) and then again to 1,251 billion in 2021, reaching 24% of total financial portfolios.
Cash, once again “the most loved by Italians”, it grew by 509 billion (+ 45%), from 1,119 billion in 2011 to 1,629 billion in 2021, with the percentage of money left on current accounts and deposits stable at 31% of total assets. If bonds seem destined for a dramatic reduction in savers’ portfolios (-67%, from 712 billion to 233 billion, with a drop of 479 billion), insurance policies are, on the other hand, conquering an increasingly significant space among the preferences of households: with 680 billion, in 2011 they were 19% of total investments, a figure that grew by 533 billion (+ 78%), last December to 1,213 billion, equal to 23% of total savings.
The savings balance of Italian families shows once again how much Italians defend their wealth through gritted teeth, despite the grip of inflation and low remuneration actually penalize liquidity. If, in any case, liquidity continues to represent the safest shelter, prudence is not the only lever to guide savings decisions and investment choices: at the same time, in fact, there is a growing need for wealth planning together with careful and prudent management of financial risk, at a time when the financial objective begins to be the right balance between security and return.