No. 148 - Italian households’ saving and wealth during the crisis

This paper investigates trends in Italian households' saving and wealth in the last twenty years, with a special emphasis on the period immediately following the financial crisis in 2008. The analysis is based on data from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth (1991-2010). The crisis has intensified the trends already under way, as confirmed by the further decline in the saving rate and the deterioration in the financial situation of low-income households, young people and tenants. Overall inequality in wealth distribution has increased. Poverty indicators based on income and wealth summarize these developments: in 2010, nine per cent of Italian households were on a low income and in the event of job loss, had sufficient financial asset to survive at the poverty line for barely six months. This percentage increases to 15 per cent for young people and to 26 per cent for tenants.