150 Billion Reasons Why the U.K. Recovery May Surprise

(Bloomberg) -- The combination of curbs on everyday life that limited the opportunities to spend and the U.K. government’s unprecedented income-protection scheme sent the savings rate skyrocketing to the highest level on record in second-quarter 2020 and kept it elevated in the third. What households do with those savings varies, yet what’s striking is that the vast majority were placed in deposit accounts and, as a result, the stock of deposits has risen by almost 150 billion pounds ($205 billion) since the end of 2019. That should mean the economy rebounds quickly once enough people are vaccinated and restrictions lifted, according to research by Bloomberg Economics.