A New Vision of Household Behaviours

Despite the broad range of motivations of household saving which were alternately mentioned during a period of more than two centuries, one was constantly ignored: the loan repayment. The explanation for such an omission is simple: the lack of information on the amount of these repayments. A particularly serious gap in our knowledge at a time where household liability has become so large in many developed countries. The available financial statistics allow nevertheless estimations of these repayments over the period 2004-2011 for five euro area countries and the euro area itself. In France, these repayments could amount to nearly two-fifths of the current household saving of national accounts. This proportion probably varies strongly from one country to another and could have a significant influence on the level of saving rates, a factor never taken into account in international comparisons.