Americans Aren’t Saving Money Like They Used To
- Fourth-quarter personal savings rate was just 3.6 percent
- The savings rate has recovered somewhat so far this year
The figures suggest that consumers were dipping into savings to maintain their spending entering 2017.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
American households scaled back their pace of savings to the lowest level in nine years at the end of 2016 as the growth of their wages and salaries slowed, updated government figures show.
The personal savings rate was 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, down from a previously published 4.9 percent, according to annual revisions to gross domestic product and related data, released Friday by the Commerce Department. That’s the lowest reading since a 2.8 percent rate in the final three months of 2007, just as the U.S. was entering a recession.