The national accounts shows that Australian households accumulated an extraordinary $450 billion worth of household savings over the pandemic, courtesy of the various stimulus packages from the government (e.g. JobSeeker and JobKeeper), alongside reduced spending during lockdowns:
As shown in the below charts from UBS (posted by Tarric Brooker on Twitter), Australian households aged over 65 accumulated the overwhelming majority of these savings, followed by 55-64 aged households:
Tarric Brooker then makes the salient observation that the large accumulation of savings by baby boomers may make it harder to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to curb spending given most boomers do not hold mortgage debt and are, therefore, less impacted by rate hikes.
The baby boomer cohort “arguably does the most discretionary spending”, says Brooker. “According to RBA data the Boomer demographic also has by far the most rapid rate of household consumption growth”:
It is an interesting observation by Tarric Brooker that’s worth keeping in mind as the RBA hikes rates next week and possibly beyond.
