The high degree of agreement in the collective labor agreement negotiations, the associated salary increases and at the same time a moderate purchasing mood ensured that the financial reserves of the Upper Austrians increased. You can read here how high the savings are and what trends are occurring.
Save when you’re in need – many Upper Austrians seem to have taken the famous saying to heart last year. In any case, savings deposits at banks will have increased considerably in 2023.
“It surprised us a bit”
“Customer deposits increased enormously in the fourth quarter – both for private individuals and companies. “That surprised us somewhat,” revealed Franz Gasselsberger, CEO of Oberbank.
Upper Austria – a country of super savers. What are the reasons for this? Heinrich Schaller, Managing Director of Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, attributes the increase in savings volume “mainly to the increased interest rates”. Stefanie Christina Huber, Managing Director of Sparkasse Upper Austria, registered “customers switching from checks to products with higher interest rates”.
Subdued purchasing mood
In addition, the high level of agreements reached during the collective labor agreement negotiations, which was reflected in real wage increases, was also reflected. “And people were not motivated to take advantage of these consumption increases,” Gasselsberger muses. The slower shopping mood is causing problems for retailers in all areas, and cheaper private labels in food have increased.
The result: if you add up the savings deposits of Oberbank, Sparkasse Oberösterreich, VKB, Hypo OÖ and Raiffeisen Oberösterreich, their customers had a total cash reserve of 30.9 billion euros at the end of last year. This means an increase of almost 3.8 billion euros within one year.
Online saving is booming
Online saving in particular is growing enormously. More than three-quarters of the new savings products taken out with Hypo OÖ in 2023 will be taken out online. Despite the trend, VKB continues to stick to the physical savings account: “We make no difference to the conditions for online savings accounts,” emphasizes Managing Director Markus Auer.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
