In 2020, the financial assets of all people living in Belgium increased to a record €1 465.7 billion from €1 409 billion in the previous year, according to figures released by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) on Wednesday.
Taking into account the financial liabilities, which also increased from €308 billion to €319.1 billion, the net financial assets of private individuals amounted to €1 146.5 billion on 31 December 2020, an increase of 4.1% compared with the previous year.
"People in Belgium save a lot anyway, so that figure was already on the rise. But we see that because of the coronavirus crisis a lot of people have been able to put aside just a little extra money because they couldn't spend it on, for example, trips or restaurant visits,” Geert Sciot, spokesperson for the NBB, told VRT News.
As a whole, people in Belgium also invested a total of €40 billion in financial assets in 2020, which, according to the NBB, was partly due to the forced saving of individuals because of the coronavirus fighting measures, which put a brake on people’s spending on holidays and other activities.
Over a ten-year period since 2010, the net financial assets of individuals increased from €827.8 billion to €1 146.5 billion, an average annual increase of 3.3% over that period.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
