Bundesbank study: The rich get richer – Frankfurter Neue Presse

Frankfurt.

Does that make a lot of cheap money the European Central Bank (ECB) only the rich richer? The High Level Deutsche Bundesbank do not have any answer. What their latest study “Households and their finances” (PHF) for Germany but shows. Especially who owns houses, flats and shares, was his wealth increase in recent years

For years, favorable monetary base the lubricant for the markets and the low interest rates driving up prices in the property markets. However: How strong as it had suggested booming stock markets and exploding real estate prices, the net assets of the German population in 2010 and 2014 put in the periods not to

“Whether the rich buy more property or property the rich richer. makes “do not guess this based on the data, explains Tobias Schmidt from the Research Centre of the Deutsche Bundesbank, who oversees the study significantly. There is, however, “a strong relationship between property ownership and wealth,” says the study, published by the Bundesbank after extensive evaluation on Monday. That average German to stocks a wide berth, leaves the right affluent continue to pull away.

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“prosperity for all” – with this legendary book titles defined in the 50s German Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard’s self-understanding of the Federal Republic.

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Overall, the researchers see the data, from April until 2014 in 4461 representatively selected the core results of its first survey wave in 2010 were raised households, confirmed: “the net assets in Germany are still unevenly distributed,” says Schmidt firmly. About half of the households now surveys – which may be a single household or a family with many children; The condition is that is mismanaged in common – adopted for the second time in the study

9259 people over the age of 16 years provided detailed information about their assets -. And their debts. On the plus side: house and car, valuable collections and jewelry, balances on savings accounts, savings contracts, shares, life insurance. On the debit side:. Mortgages, consumer loans, credit card debt, student loan debt

the sum of all assets If we add up and divide by 40 million households, an average gross wealth of households in Germany yields of 240 200 (2010 222 200) euros. Excluding debt remains a net worth of 214 500 (195 200) euros left. On average, the net assets of the households surveyed again increased by EUR 11 000. The values, the researchers rely on information provided by respondents

The sober realization:. The richest ten percent are 59.8 (2010: 59.2) percent of net assets, while nearly three-quarters of households 2014 only had a below-average net assets. . The lower half of the households have to make do with a meager 2.5 percent of the total net assets

Because the mean values ​​for the assets, however, are strongly influenced by extreme values, the Bundesbank experts consider another evaluation for more meaningful: the so-called median. Here all individual data are sequentially ordered, then the center of the distribution is determined. Households are thus divided into a richer and poorer half. These median values ​​are significantly lower than the distorted by “outliers” pure averages: gross at 77 200 (2010 67 900) euros, net 60 400 (51 400) Euro

The boundary between the wealthiest ten. percent and the rest of the households proceeded at 468 000 euro is therefore eight times higher than the median. For the euro area as a whole resulted in this case in the 2010 study – recent data for the currency area are expected end of 2016 – a value of five

This means that the net assets in Germany are distributed significantly more unequal than in many other European. countries. For Italy figures for 2014 are already available: There, the average net assets amount to 218 000 euros, the median of net 138 000 Euro

In the German domestic assets compared to the East is lagging – despite growth – also behind the west.. The average net assets were in the five eastern German states plus Berlin in 2014 at 96,100 (2010: 67,480) Euro, in the West there were 246 000 (230 240) euros. The median was in the east at net 24 800 (21 440 Euros), in the West at 80 000 (78 910) Euro

One reason:. Real estate ownership and operation assets are less common in the East than in the West, where assets is often multiplied for generations. “Wealth builds up slowly,” said Bundesbank researchers Schmidt. That is why he also hopes that the central bank can make based on their next survey is scheduled for 2017 for an extended period of robust conclusions.

(AP)