Customers of the savings banks in the southwest are finding it increasingly difficult to save because of the high inflation. The banks felt how the customers’ ability to save was declining, said Peter Schneider, President of the Savings Banks Association of Baden-Württemberg, on Thursday in Stuttgart. “Meanwhile, around 40 percent of our private customers cannot put any money aside,” says Schneider. He calls this a “dramatic number”.
Rising energy prices are yet to come.Schneider therefore assumed that half of the customers would soon need their income to cover their expenses.
The savings banks in Bavaria are also reporting problems for their savers. Because of the high inflation, savers are in an even worse position than in previous years, despite interest rates being positive again. That said Bavaria’s savings bank president Ulrich Reuter at the half-yearly balance sheet in Munich. “Zero interest and one to two percent inflation were even more advantageous for customers than eight percent inflation and one percent interest.” That was a “much harder lot” especially for small savers.
Reuter warned that inflation is robbing many people of the ability to save and make financial provisions at all. “If inflation remains high or even increases further, the number of people who are still able to save will decrease significantly. The impact is yet to come.”
A spokeswoman for the German Savings Banks and Giro Association told the “Bild” newspaper what would happen if the inflation rate remained at the very high level of currently 7.5 percent: “Around 60 percent of German households have to use all of their available Use your monthly income.” That means in plain language: There is nothing left to save.
Three Berliners are said to have denigrated the virologist Christian Drosten on a campsite in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Police and prosecutors are investigating. The allegations are substantiated, and the campsite operator also reacted.
Tarek Müller drove drunk on an e-scooter through Hamburg at night. The police stopped him. A fine of 1,500 euros followed. However, Müller did not want to pay this and lodged an objection. The result: now he has to shell out 80,000 euros.
The US economy shrank in the spring. After a decline in economic output at the beginning of the year, gross domestic product fell by 0.9 percent on an annualized basis in the second quarter, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Thursday. Experts had expected growth of 0.4 percent.
