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Irish household net worth soared to a record high in the final three months of last year, despite the various economic pressures, new data from the Central Bank shows.

In total, household net worth rose €38.5 billion between October and the end of December, to reach €995 billion.

This equated to €198,498 for every man, woman and child here.

However, the Central Bank pointed out that the growth may not reflect the underlying experiences of all households or the distribution of wealth, as many struggled with rising costs and employment difficulties caused by the pandemic.

“In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have had varying effects on the wealth of different household groups,” it said.

Housing assets also reached a new high during the period of €630 billion after they grew by €30.5 billion, breaching the previous peak of €604 billion that was reached in the fourth quarter of 2007.

“Positive revaluations in housing assets represent the dominant driver of increases in net wealth in recent quarters,” the bank said.

“However, increasing deposits and upward revaluations of other financial assets have also been important sources of growth in net wealth.”

Financial assets also grew, primarily as a result of a rise in the value of insurance and pension schemes by €5 billion, and to a lesser extent increases in deposits held with credit institutions.

Although still high when compared to pre-pandemic levels household savings also declined for the third consecutive quarter falling by €1 billion to stand at €6.8 billion for the quarter.

Article Source – Irish household wealth hits record €198,498 per person – RTE – Will Goodbody

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