By STA
Household deposits at banks rose by over EUR 2 billion to a record EUR 23 billion in the epidemic year of 2020 from 2019, the Slovenian central bank said on Tuesday. It attributed the rise to the labour market measures taken during the epidemic, which enabled income growth. But since many shops were closed, much of the income was not spent.
Last year, the gross disposable income of households increased by 3.8% or EUR 1.1 billion over 2019.
“Although households had more funds available, private consumption in Slovenia strongly decreased, with similar trends witnessed in all the other eurozone members.
“The reasons are mostly related to restrictive measures needed to contain the spread of the virus, and partly also to precautionary behaviour of residents.”
Since many services and non-essential shops were at least partly limited or closed during the lockdowns, households spent around EUR 2.6 billion less than in 2019.