Savings deposits from private households rose by 9.8 percent to 194 billion euros. Building savings deposits fell by 2.6 percent to 14.3 billion euros, according to data published by the National Bank (OeNB). 34 percent of Austrians recently had one Building savers – that is the lowest level since the survey began in 1997.
“One reason for the different developments is likely to be the small difference in interest rates between the interest rates offered by building societies for long-term deposits and the interest rates offered by other Austrian banks for shorter terms,” writes the OeNB. The average interest rate for new short-term deposits with a commitment period of up to one year for all banks in December 2023 was 3.3 percent and for a commitment period of over two years it was just below 3.27 percent. This is the phenomenon of the “inverted yield curve” – long-term interest rates are lower than short-term ones.
3.17 percent for six years
New building savings deposits, which have a commitment period of six years, were even lower at 3.17 percent. However, for building societies, the annual state building savings bonus must be added, which has been at the minimum rate of 1.5 percent since 2012.
The declining trend in building savings deposits is also reflected in the number of building savings contracts in the savings stage. At the end of the previous year this was 2,967,984. This represents a decrease of 5.5 percent compared to the end of 2022 and, according to the National Bank, is the lowest value since data collection began in 1997.
Converted to the Austrian population, the low number of building savings contracts means that 34 percent of people in Austria currently have one Building savers have. In 1997, the number of building savings contracts was 6,042,070 (of which 87 percent were in the savings stage). At this point in time, 76 percent of the Austrian population still had a building savings contract. Austria has always been considered the “Land of the Building savers“.
However, the outstanding loans at building societies did increase last year – by 3.4 percent to 20.65 billion euros. This means that the loan amount exceeds that of building savings deposits (14.34 billion euros) by 6.31 billion euros.
This phenomenon has been evident since the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the National Bank. The deviation reached its peak in the previous year.
The increase in outstanding loans was due in particular to building society loans. In December 2023, these had a value of 11.79 billion euros, 11.8 percent higher than in the previous year. In addition to building society loans, cash loans also rose to 6.23 billion euros (plus 0.4 percent). The outstanding interim loans, however, fell by 18.3 percent in the same period and fell to 2.63 billion euros. The decline in interim loans is due in particular to lower new loans and conversions into building society loans.
