Household savings slump to record low

Households are putting away eversmaller amounts of their earnings as higher prices and sluggish wages squeeze household finances. Deposits only rose by a total of 2.6 per cent in the 12 months to May, the joint-weakest pace since the depths of the financial crisis in 2011. At the end of 2016 Britons were saving an average of 3.3 per cent of their incomes, the lowest rate since records began in the Sixties.