23/12/2010 00:00:00
10% of households owns 45% of the wealth. This is what The Bank of Italy says in its report “Wealth of the Italian households” just appeared. At the end of 2009, the gross wealth of Italian households is estimated at about 350 000 € on average per household. The real assets accounted for 62.3% of gross wealth, financial assets 37.7%, financial liabilities for 9.1 percent of total assets. Total net wealth has increased between the end of 2008 and the end of 2009 by about 1, 1%, reflecting an increase in the value of financial assets (2.4%) higher than that of liabilities (1.6 %). At constant prices, using consumption as a deflator, the increase in total wealth was 1.3%. At the end of 2009 wealth held by Italian households in housing could be estimated at about 4,800 billion euro. In real terms, housing wealth has increased since the end of 2008 by 0.4%. According to preliminary estimates, in the first half of 2010, the net wealth of households would have experienced a decline by 0.3% in nominal terms, following a decline in financial assets and an increase in liabilities, which more than offset the growth of real assets. Recent studies estimate the share of net wealth held by Italian households worldwide would be 5.7%, higher than the Italian share of world GDP and population (equal to about 3% and 1%). In international comparison, Italian families are relatively poorly indebted. The amount of debt is equal to 78% of gross disposable income (in Germany and in France it is about 100%, while in the U.S. and Japan is 130%). 41% of Italian households’ debt is represented by loans for house purchase.
