Presentation of ‘Strategies to increase savings’
Civismo, together with Value School, held a presentation of the four reports that they have jointly published throughout 2019 about the situation of family savings in Spain and the strategies to increase it. Thus, Javier Santacruz, lead researcher at Civismo, and author of these studies, presented the main characteristics of the family budget, its balance, denounced its precariousness and also shed light on some of the main investment figures in our country.
During the presentation, Santacruz quantified the “very low” level of savings in Spain: only 4 euros out of 100, ten points less than Germany, representing “a hole in structural indebtedness”. A waste that he attributed to the misconception that monetary spending equals quality of life: “This is not the case. Where is the efficiency?” He asked.
«The Spanish tax system penalises savings»
Javier Santacruz
In fact, he pointed out that one of the underlying factors of poverty in Spain is the rigidity of expenses that one does not want to cut, not those that cannot. He also stated that “one is poor when one does not have financial freedom”.
Regardless of individual decisions, Santacruz blamed the design of our country’s tax system: “Spain fiscally rewards consumption, while personal income tax and social contributions take 37 percent of the income, and there is an estate tax. The tax system penalises savings”, he concluded.