DECLINE IN WEALTH

The wealth of the average household fell by €100,000 between late 2008 and the end of 2010, mainly due to the collapse in property prices, The Sunday Business Post reports.

New research from the Central Bank also shows that taken from the peak of the property boom in mid-2006, the average decline in wealth per household is around €140,000. Overall, €281 billion has been wiped from the value of property, shares and other assets over the past three years.  By the end of 2010, wealth had fallen to the same levels as 2003, a reflection of the similar decline in house prices.

“The drop of wealth of around 1.8 times GDP compares to the Japanese recession of the 1990s, where there was an estimated loss of three times GDP, and the one year’s GDP estimated to have been lost during the US Great Depression of the 1930s,” the newspaper says.