Poland’s savings rate keeps climbing as the EU stalls

This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers

Poland’s household savings rate rose for the 14th consecutive quarter in the third quarter of 2025. According to data released today by Eurostat, it reached 10.2%. That is already 4 percentage points above the pre-pandemic average.

Eurostat also slightly revised Poland’s savings rate downward for previous quarters, by 0.1 percentage points.

The chart above shows the evolution of household savings in Poland and the European Union from 2016 to the third quarter of 2025. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the averages stood at 6.2% for Poland and 11.8% for the EU. This suggests that both economies are influenced by similar forces. Consumers are rebuilding savings eroded by the inflation shock of recent years, a process supported by still relatively high interest rates.

There are, however, important differences. First, for the EU as a whole, the data already point to a decline in the savings rate of around 0.3 percentage points. In Poland, by contrast, the increase over the same period amounted to 0.6 percentage points. Moreover, relative to the pre-pandemic average, the savings rate in Poland is now higher by 4 percentage points, compared with just 2.6 percentage points in the EU. Despite this, Poland’s economy grew faster than the EU’s in the third quarter.

The United States

That said, it is worth noting that the savings rate is among the more difficult statistics to compile. It is released with a significant lag and is subject to substantial revisions. Suffice it to say that, according to data initially published for the first quarter of 2025, the savings rate stood at 10%. Since then, it has already been revised downward by 1.1 percentage points.

It is worth recalling that the United States presents a markedly different picture. There, the savings rate remains below its long-term average from before 2020.

In the third quarter, it stood at just 4.1% - some 2 percentage points lower than in 2015–19. This trend is deepening. In the U.S., savings-rate data are published on a monthly basis, and according to the latest figures (for November) it has already fallen to 3.5%.

According to experts at the European Commission, this gap helps explain part of the weaker performance of the European economy relative to the American one in recent months. It also accounts for the strong pace of consumption growth in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2025.

Polish households are saving more—despite strong growth. Poland’s household savings rate rose for the 14th consecutive quarter, reaching 10.2% in Q3 2025 — around 4 percentage points above its pre-pandemic average and rising faster than in the EU overall, even as Poland continues to outperform the bloc in GDP growth.
The EU savings rebound is stalling, Poland’s is not. While EU-wide savings rates have begun to edge down, Poland’s continue to increase, suggesting stronger precautionary behavior among Polish households as they rebuild buffers after the inflation shock, supported by still-elevated interest rates.
The U.S. follows a fundamentally different consumption model. American households are saving far less than before the pandemic, with the savings rate falling to 3.5% in November. This gap helps explain stronger U.S. consumption and economic momentum compared with Europe, where higher savings weigh on near-term demand.