Current embezzlement: Russians began to save half as much
In the first six months of this year, Russians began saving half as much money. The share of income that went to savings decreased to 4.4%, Izvestia found out. The main reason is the rapid growth of expenses: expenses increased by 13.7%, while earnings increased by only 7%. Rising prices, expensive loans and lower deposit rates are forcing people to spend more on everyday purchases. As a result, families have less money for a financial cushion. It is much more profitable to invest money so that they are not eaten up by inflation, — in the Izvestia article.
Why Russians have started saving less
The savings activity of Russians has fallen sharply: in the first half of 2026, the share of income allocated to savings decreased from 10% to 4.4%, according to Rosstat. This includes not only bank deposits, but also the purchase of securities, mutual funds, real estate and foreign currency. Izvestia asked the representatives of the statistical department what this was about.
Experts are sure that the main reason for this decline is that expenses are growing faster than incomes. According to Rosstat, nominal household incomes increased by 7% in the first half of the year, while spending jumped by about 13.7%. As a result, some families simply have less free money to save.
Additional pressure is created by the regular purchase of food, medicines, payment for housing and communal services and other mandatory expenses. They reduce the amount of money that could be used for savings faster, says Vasily Kutyin, Ingo Bank's Director of Analytics.
A decrease in the key rate also played a role. In the first half of the year, deposit yields decreased following the Central Bank's rate, and the attractiveness of banking products worsened, said Valeria Popova, a leading analyst at Rikom-Trust. At the same time, some Russians could simply redistribute funds between deposits, bonds, mutual funds, long-term savings programs and other instruments, Vasily Kutyin believes.
The Bank of Russia stressed that a decrease in the share of savings is normal when the key interest rate is reduced. The current level of 4.4% is still higher than in 2017-2019, when people saved 3.9% of their income in the first half of the year, the regulator's press service added.
It is more correct to consider what is happening as a normalization of the use of income after the effect of exceptionally high rates in 2025, said Timur Nigmatullin, senior investment consultant at Finam. Good interest rates have encouraged the population to save more, but now this trend is slowing down.
At the same time, deposits of citizens as a whole are not decreasing: in the first half of the year, their volume increased by 1.1 trillion rubles, the Central Bank reported. The bank of Saint Petersburg also noted a positive trend: term deposits of individuals increased to 46.82 trillion rubles, and funds in accounts, including accumulative ones, increased even more.
However, some of the money still goes out of banking products for current consumption, said Vitaly Kostyukevich, Director of Absolut Bank's Retail products department. The decrease in the inflow of funds from the population increases the competition of market participants for depositors and forces them to maintain or raise rates on some products now, the expert concluded.
What is the danger of low savings activity?
For an individual family, a decrease in the savings rate means, first of all, a smaller margin of safety. If there is little free money left after mandatory expenses, a sudden repair, illness, or temporary loss of income can empty your wallet and force you to turn to loans, experts warn.
However, the inevitable increase in creditworthiness should not be expected immediately. The debt burden of the population at the beginning of 2026, on the contrary, decreased to 9.1% of disposable income, so the reduction in savings now rather indicates a decrease in the financial reserve of individual households, said Ekaterina Kazak, CEO of Cyberbird Fintech Group.
The economic effect is also ambiguous. Money that is not deposited continues to work through consumer demand, which supports economic activity. But at the same time, the amount of funds that banks can use as a relatively stable resource base for lending to businesses and the public is decreasing. In the long run, this can limit investment and create additional pressure on prices, says Boris Kopeikin, chief economist at the Stolypin Institute for Growth Economics.
An additional risk arises if consumption grows faster than supply. In this case, increased demand may support inflation and complicate further rate cuts, as the Bank of Russia will have to take into account the likelihood of a new acceleration in price growth. At the same time, according to Timur Nigmatullin, it is more correct to talk not about the independent impact of savings, but about the consequences of a change in the key rate: a higher rate stimulates savings and restrains demand, while a lower one acts in the opposite direction.
So far, there are no signs of a massive outflow of deposits from the banking system. According to the Central Bank, citizens' funds continue to grow, and financial institutions have sufficient funding.
However, in the future, the propensity to save may continue to decline if incomes grow more slowly than expenses, and deposit rates decrease. This scenario is suggested by several analysts at once, including Maria Ermilova, an international financial adviser, and Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Global.
How not to lose money during the period of inflation
Against the background of interruptions in Internet access in Russia, the volume of cash in circulation began to grow. In the first seven months of 2026, it increased by 2.5 trillion rubles, according to the Central Bank. In July alone, the increase amounted to 643 billion. However, if you keep all the money in the cache, it is gradually eaten up by inflation.
In the last three weeks, Rosstat has recorded the traditional small summer deflation. But the annual price increase still exceeds 6%.
The main rule for saving now is not to look for one tool that will simultaneously provide maximum profitability, liquidity and protection from all risks. It is more reasonable to distribute money among several products, depending on the period for which they are postponed and the investor's willingness to accept risk, experts say.
For an amount of less than 500 thousand rubles, a bank deposit can still be the basic option, according to the financial adviser and founder of Rodin.Capital Alexey Rodin. With rates of about 12-14% and inflation of about 6%, the deposit still provides positive real returns, although with a further decrease in the key, this reserve will decrease.
Some of the funds can be kept in money market funds: they retain high liquidity and yield returns close to the key interest rate. For a longer period of time, it is reasonable to send money to OFZs and high-quality corporate bonds. According to independent economist Viktor Mangazeev, the yield on long—term OFZs is currently at about 15.6% per annum, while high-quality corporate bonds are about 16-16.5%.
More risky instruments are stocks and securities of large companies. It is reasonable to use them only for long-term savings, when a temporary decrease in the value of the portfolio will not force the owner to sell assets at a loss. You can start exploring the stock market with small amounts of 5-10 thousand rubles, gradually understanding the mechanics of the tools, said Alexey Rodin.
For a person with an income of up to 80 thousand rubles, it is most reasonable to form a reserve for at least three months of expenses, says Sergey Krasnousov, a federal expert at the Association for the Development of Financial Literacy. It can be kept in a savings account or a short-term deposit. After creating an airbag, some of the free money can already be placed on an urgent deposit, some more in protective instruments like OFZ or gold, and up to 10-15% can be directed to long—term products.
In the current conditions, chasing profitability is not worth it, experts agree. A balanced portfolio will help protect you from inflation, but only if you think carefully about its contents. If a person doesn't have time to deal with complex tools, a bank deposit is still the best choice.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
