Bank of Italy

At the end 2012 Italian households’ net wealth amounted to €8,542 billion,corresponding to €143,000 per person and €357,000 per household. Real assets accounted for 61.1 per cent of total gross wealth and financial assets for the remaining 38.9 per cent. Liabilities amounting to just under €900 billion were equal to almost 10 per cent of gross assets.

Total net wealth at the end of 2012 was down by 0.6 per cent at current prices from a year earlier; the 3.5 per cent decline in the value of real assets, due the 5.2 fall in house prices, was only partially offset by an increase of 4.5 per cent in financial assets and a reduction of 0.4 per cent in liabilities. In real terms (using the consumption deflator), net wealth fell by 2.9 per cent. The cumulative decline at constant prices since the end of 2007 came to 9 per cent.

According to preliminary estimates, in the first half of 2013 Italian households’net wealth diminished by a further 1 per cent in nominal terms with respect to December 2012.

At the end of 2012 Italian household wealth in the form of housing exceeded €4,800 billion, down by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier (-6 per cent in real terms).

Notwithstanding the decline in recent years, Italian households’ net wealth is high by international standards. In 2011 it was equal to 7.9 times gross disposable income, comparable to the ratio in France, the United Kingdom or Japan and higher than in the United States, Germany or Canada. Real assets were equal to 5.5 times gross disposable income, a ratio second only to that for French households. Although it has increased in recent years, the level of household debt in Italy (82 per cent of disposable income) is relatively low.

Household Wealth in Italy in 2012Supplements to the Statistical Bulletin - Monetary and Financial Indicators