Household financial behaviour

Households make many financial decisions on a daily basis. Taken together, they have an impact on the economy. They save and invest, take out loans or build up their assets to provide for the future. In doing so, they provide the economy with the financial resources that are essential for productive investment and progress.

How people in Austria save, invest and provide for the future

Every day, we all make a multitude of financial decisions which, taken together, have an effect on the economy. We either spend our disposable income on consumption or save it to make investments in the real economy or the financial sector.

Households thus provide banks and non-financial corporations with the capital they need for their business activities. Household savings are therefore key resources for productive investment by businesses and, consequently, for innovation and progress.

Why is this important?

By saving, investing and borrowing, households play a key role in determining how the economy reacts to monetary policy decisions.

The OeNB regularly analyses the financial behaviour of households and other sectors of the economy and makes the results available to the public. Decision-makers in politics and business, researchers and also households themselves use these data, analyses and research findings to gain valuable insights that enable them to make informed decisions.

Household Finance and Consumption Survey

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) collects data on households’ finances and consumption. The HFCS is the most comprehensive household survey conducted on this subject in Europe.

It is the first survey in Austria to allow the entire balance sheet of households to be analysed according to international standards. In Austria, the OeNB is in charge of implementing the HFCS project in close cooperation with the other euro area national central banks and the European Central Bank (ECB).

HFCS

Financial accounts

Financial accounts capture how private households save, borrow and build up wealth. They provide insights into households’ financial behaviour by systematically recording their financial assets, liabilities and transactions.

They show financial transactions and financial assets for all sectors of the Austrian economy. These include, for example, businesses, households and banks. They are broken down by investment or financing instruments (such as deposits, loans, securities, equity interests and insurance and pension schemes).

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  • Household net financial assets

  • Household financial investment

  • Net lending/borrowing

The financial accounts are part of the national accounts; they reflect the financial side of the national accounts.

Data are compiled in line with the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). The ESA 2010 is the current internationally compatible accounting framework for providing a systematic and detailed description of the EU economy or individual EU economies, which, at the global level, corresponds to the System of National Accounts 2008 and, for cross-border financial transactions, to the sixth edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6).

A wide range of different data sources are incorporated into the calculation of the financial accounts. These include statistics from the OeNB, Statistics Austria and the Financial Market Authority. The data are reported by banks, insurance companies, pension funds and non-financial corporations, among others.

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Data

OeNB Reports on household financial behaviour

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