Disposable Individual Income Decreases

By Shawgi Tell, 9 December 1997

According to the Research and Information Institution on Income, the financial situation of individuals has deteriorated in 1997.

The Institute notes that in real terms the disposable individual income fell 1.2 per cent in 1996 and that the decrease has continued throughout 1997. It fell 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of 1997 and by 1.7 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period the previous year.

The rate of individual savings, which remained at 7.5 per cent in 1994 and 1995, rapidly decreased to 4.3 per cent in 1996. The decrease has continued in 1997, with the overall savings rate reaching 1.6 per cent in the first quarter and 0.5 per cent in the second.

The number of individual bankruptcies has continued to increase, going from 20,842 in 1995 to 24,887 in 1996.

TML DAILY, 12/4/97 Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
tell@acsu.buffalo.edu