Rising negative sentiment drives savings index lower

Rising negative sentiment towards savings drove the national savings index lower in April. The Nationwide UK (Ireland)/ESRI Savings Index which measures overall sentiment towards saving, fell to 114 last month.

The sub-index measuring the proportion of people who consider it to be a good time to put money away and whether government policy encourages people to save, fell three points, driving the overall index lower.

Commenting on the index, Nationwide UK (Ireland) managing director Brendan Synnott said: “This month the index has followed the underlying trend observed over the last few months, with more people saving regularly, but there is evidence of some discontent as to whether the current period is a good time to save.