Sardinians invest more and more in bank and postal deposits. As well as in securities, shares and mutual fund units, as well as in insurance and social security reserves. In ten years the value of this financial asset, which contributes to determining the wealth of families, has gone from 53.9 billion to 72.3. The data is contained in the report that Bankitalia publishes every year. The analysis concerns the decade 2011-2021 and represents the most up-to-date snapshot of how Sardinians use their savings. Household wealth is given by money and assets net of debt. On the island, coinciding with the pandemic, there was a real explosion of financial activities. Until 2019, the Sardinians had decided to make use of 64.4 billion. In the space of twelve months, 68.8 billion were reached, before reaching 72.3 in 2021. It means that in just two years the families of the island have invested something like 7.9 billion euros.
Never before the Covid emergency had the financial activity of Sardinians been so high. The investment trend followed a slow trend more than anything else. At times minimal, with rare exceptions. So: 53.9 billion in 2011; 56.2 in 2012; 57.8 in 2013; 59.1 in 2014; 60.9 in 2015; 61 in 2016; 62.5 in 2017. In 2018 there was a slight contraction to 60.8 billion. Compared to the national average, however, the island is lagging behind, despite the surge. The transition from 53.9 billion in 2011 to 72.3 in 2021 represents "a value that has grown by more than a third, but to a lesser extent than what was observed in the country", where the increase reached "41 percent", we read in the Bank of Italy report. In terms of satisfaction, bank and postal deposits appear to be the Sardinians' favorite form of savings, together with notes and coins (42.7%). This item went from 23.2 billion to 30.9 in a decade. Securities, shares and mutual fund investments are the second choice (31.8%): in absolute numbers, from 19.8 billion in 2011 they have reached 23 in 2021. Within this type of investment, analysts point out the big leap forward made in Sardinia «by the various components of managed savings – it is still written in the Bankitalia report -: the incidence of insurance and social security reserves, together with mutual funds, rose by 11 percentage points, to 33 percent hundred, while that of bonds has significantly reduced".
Currently the wealth of Sardinians is estimated by Bank of Italy at 226.8 billion euros, equal to a growth of 9.2 percent in ten years. The bulk of this well-being is determined by real estate assets, given that in our country buying a house is a cultural goal even before an economic one. Suffice it to say that in Italy the percentage of families who live in their own home is close to 80 percent compared to 60 in Germany and even 42 in France. Home purchases are part of the so-called real activity: on the island, however, this value did not experience peaks in the decade in question, because "the slight increase in the value of homes was offset by a decrease in that of non-residential buildings". In real estate, the Sardinians had invested 138.8 billion in 2011; after ten years, the quota reached is slightly higher, at 139.5.
Above all, Bank of Italy notes two elements. The first concerns the impact that deposits and managed savings have had on the well-being of families, whose growth «is mainly attributable to the strong increase in the value of financial assets, which in 2021 represented 29.1 percent of gross wealth ». The same value, ten years earlier, accounted for 23.7 percent. As for real estate assets, i.e. the real component of wealth, Bank of Italy highlights the slow growth and speaks of a dynamic that "has stagnated overall, also due to the decline in property prices". Hence the lack of convenience in selling. And if in financial activities the Sardinians are slightly behind the national average, in terms of overall wealth the families of the island are showing a positive trend: a 9.2 percentage increase compared to the 8.4 recorded in the rest of the country. In detail of the trend per year, these are the numbers: between 2011 and 2013 there was a surge, with the value of current wealth rising from 207.7 billion to 216.9. Then the slight decline in 2014, to 216.1. In 2015 the value was 217.7. Another drop in 2016, to 217.4 billion. In 2017, wealth stopped at 219.3, and then dropped again in 2018 to 217.3. «Finally, a further increase in the last three years»: 220.5 billion in 2019; 224.2 in 2020 and 226.8 in 2021.