South Africans saving less than R3 out of every R100

South Africans last year saved on average R2.80 for every R100 of their disposable, or after tax, income, the latest Housing Review from ABSA says

Apparently this was an improvement from 2011 when they saved R2.70 for every R100.

The bank said that the amount households saved was not sufficient to pay a deposit when financing property, a vehicle or household appliances.

In contrast, South Africans continued to have an appetite for credit according to the National Credit Regulator.

There were 19.97 million credit-active consumers at the end of 2012 up from 19.69 million at the end of 2011.

A staggering 9.34 million had impaired records, simply put, bad debts.

Just over 4 million were more than three months behind in their payments and nearly 2.8 million had judgments and pending orders.