BoE Chief Economist Andy Haldane told the Daily Mail newspaper that as people’s incomes held up and spending was restrained by the coronavirus restrictions, “they have amassed around £100billion of excess savings.” People are using their “involuntarily-accumulated savings” on a new house or a new car, and there are “plenty of those savings still to be used.”
Households have shown “unbelievable resilience” and consumer spending has “come back at real pace”. People are also flexible as “they are not going to the pubs and restaurants, but they have switched to takeaways and patio heaters.”
Haldane believed that the roll out of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could deliver a boost to the economy. “There is plenty of scope there for the vaccine to release more of that pent-up demand.”
