Saving index sees slight drop in September

Irish people may have been tightening their purse strings ahead of Budget 2019.

Savings and investments - which had reached a record high in August - dipped slightly in the month of September.

That is according to the latest results from the Bank of Ireland/ESRI Savings and Investment Index released today.

Tom McCabe from Bank of Ireland Investment Markets said: "I think that is really just a function of we were really coming off high levels so, for example, we saw just a slight pick-up in more negative responses in people's attitudes towards saving.

"So a good example of that is when we asked people how they felt about the amounts they were saving, the percentage of people that felt they weren't saving enough rose from 35% to 45%."