How come

If you listen to economic comments about Ireland you will here that Ireland has a huge saving rate and huge personal debt simultaneously, how can that be dose it mean in a sense we have two Ireland.

johnnyskeleton

Two different things entirely.

Total Debt = money owed at present
Total Savings = money saved at present

Rate of savings = propensity to increase/decrease savings (includes paying off/increasing debt)

As actual savings and paying of debt are considered the same for calculation of the savings rate, you could in theory have a negative savings rate i.e. if Irish people are taking on more new debt than they are paying it off/saving, we would have a savings rate of e.g. -2%.

Therefore, the two points you describe reflect in general a situation where we have high total debt, low total savings, but a high rate of savings. This means, in broad terms, that people are paying off more debt than they are taking out new debt.

It's more complex than that, and this is an area where statistics are deliberately misconstrued for political purposes (e.g. that there is a pool of rich savers who should be taxed to pay for the debts of the poor indebted folk) so take everything with a pinch of salt.

AFAIK, most of the "high" savings rate is due to paying down/writing off of debt rather than actual savings. Actual savings are decreasing (although had a bit of a stabilisation/increase early this year). Also, actual savings in Ireland are a lot less than in a lot of other countries.

Voltex

I think where you have single individuals who personally owe >€billion they could more than skew the figures!