Irish savers are paid lowest deposit rates in Europe

Irish savers are earning significantly lower returns on their deposit accounts than their euro zone peers, data from the European Central Bank shows, with fixed term deposit rates in Ireland now the lowest in Europe.

It means that a saver in Ireland will earn just €10 on a €10,000 deposit compared with €179 in Slovakia, €145 in the Netherlands or €98 in France.

According to the figures from the ECB, in March the average rate on new business fixed rate deposits in the euro zone was 0.42 per cent. Here in Ireland, however, the rate was just 0.10 per cent, the lowest across 18 European economies.

This means that someone putting €10,000 on deposit in Ireland can expect a return of just €10 on their money, compared with €42 on average in the euro zone. In the Netherlands, based on a rate of 1.45 per cent, the return will be as high as €145, or €179 in Slovakia.

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While no country offers a return as low as Ireland, in Spain the return is also very low at just 0.11 per cent, or 0.18 per cent in Slovenia.

Yet despite the dearth of returns available, Irish consumers are still saving a lot. Figures from the Central Bank show that they are saving more than they were in the aftermath of the banking crisis when deposit rates were more than 3 per cent.

Indeed, in March 2017, some €540 million was placed on deposit by Irish resident households, bringing the total to € 98.1 billion, the highest level since April 2010.