The net financial wealth of households rose to 1,174.7 billion euros in the second quarter. Belgians mainly parked more money in term deposit accounts.
Household wealth has increased, according to figures from the National Bank. The value of all savings and investments without real estate minus debts increased by 8.6 billion euros between the end of March and the end of June to 1,174.7 billion euros. Assets increased by 10.8 billion to 1,522.2 billion and debts by 2.2 billion to 347.5 billion. This once again makes up for a limited part of the major impoverishment of last year.
Term accounts were popular because they offer a higher return than savings accounts.
New investments in savings and investment products in particular increased net financial assets in the second quarter. Families parked more than 7 billion euros extra in term accounts, because they have a higher return than savings accounts. The Belgians also bought 2.2 billion euros worth of bonds and smaller amounts of listed shares and investment funds. The balances on current accounts and savings accounts fell slightly.
Added value
Furthermore, families recorded a capital gain of 1.9 billion euros on their investment portfolio. Investment funds, which mainly invest in foreign shares, became worth 4.2 billion more. The listed shares portfolio, which includes many Belgian shares, lost 0.8 billion euros in value.
The foreign stock exchanges performed better than the Belgian stock exchange in the second quarter.
“This is in line with the finding that the foreign stock exchanges performed better than the Belgian stock exchange in the second quarter,” the National Bank said in an explanation. The American S&P500 index and the Euro Stoxx 50 rose in euros by 8 and 2 percent respectively, while the Bel20 fell by 7 percent.
Debts
The increase in debt mainly reflects the increase in mortgage loans. Debt growth is slower than last year, because the rise in long-term interest rates has a negative impact on real estate investments.
There is a good chance that family wealth will have fallen in the third quarter. The US stock market and most European stock markets fell in the summer and bond portfolios lost some of their value due to the sharp rise in long-term interest rates.