7.51 Billion Euros in Deposits and 4.93 Billion Euros in Loans to Citizens: The 4,100-Euro Average per Resident Exists Only on a Calculator

On World Savings Day the number sounds nice: citizens' accounts hold 7.51 billion euros. That's what household deposits stood at in September, according to National Bank data, against about 7.2 billion euros at the start of the year. Over nine months, roughly 310 million euros more.

Divided by about 1.83 million residents, the sum works out to around 4,100 euros per person. That number exists only on a calculator. Deposits include transaction accounts and demand money too, meaning also the salary that will pay next week's electricity bill. Besides, the total doesn't show how many savers stand behind it, or what share sits with those holding the largest balances.

The other side of the ledger is growing faster. Loans to citizens reached about 4.93 billion euros in September, and household lending is up 12.7 percent year on year. Deposits exceed loans by more than two billion euros, but that's the sum for a whole country. Nothing in that figure says the money belongs to the person paying off an installment.

There's also the question of price. The average interest rate on newly approved household loans in September was 4.77 percent, and on newly accepted deposits 2.69 percent. Inflation for January-September is 3.6 percent. In other words, the number in the account grows, while what it can buy doesn't have to grow at all.

Month by month, the picture isn't even that straight a line. In March citizens withdrew around 31.8 million euros, and in August deposits fell to 7.49 billion euros, after July's 7.52 billion. The saving is real, but also fragile.

The banks read the growth as trust, and they have grounds for that. But to know how people live, you need a different figure: how many households have a reserve for a few months, and how many can't cover even one unexpected expense. That number doesn't get shown at the celebrations. The billions are in the banks. The question is whose they are.