The net financial wealth of Belgians will increase by 62.5 billion euros to 1,191.1 billion euros in 2023. This was evident from statistics from the National Bank on Friday.
Financial assets improved due to both net investments (19.1 billion euros) and increases in value (51.5 billion euros). Due to the low interest rates on savings accounts, term accounts and fixed-income securities (including the coveted one-year government bond of August) proved to be particularly popular investment products in 2023. An additional EUR 31 billion and 33.3 billion respectively were invested in them.
Belgians also continued to invest additional money in investment funds, +6.4 billion euros, and the value of the portfolios also increased by 16 billion euros, to a total of 264.9 billion euros. An additional 1.3 billion went to listed shares, which also became worth 5.5 billion more, to a total of 83.9 billion euros.
The low interest rates on savings accounts caused families to withdraw money en masse from their savings accounts and current accounts. At 265.2 and 85.3 billion euros respectively at the end of last year, this amounted to 30.5 and 20.4 billion euros less than a year earlier. Belgians also invested less in insurance products (-6.1 billion), but the portfolios became worth 25.1 billion more at 287.6 billion euros.
All together, the financial assets of Belgians increased by 70.6 billion to 1,540.1 billion euros last year. Financial obligations have since increased by around 8 billion to 349 billion euros. The increase is mainly due to an increase in housing loans.
This results in an increase in net financial assets of 62.5 billion euros. In 2022, Belgians would have become 95 billion euros poorer due to falling stock prices and rising interest rates.