P.M. BRIEFING : World’s Top Savers: Japanese

For the third year in a row, the Japanese were the world’s top savers last year, salting away nearly four times as much money as Americans, a survey released today showed. Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands were next on the annual, dollar-denominated list published by the International Savings Banks Institute.

At the end of 1989, the average Japanese had placed the equivalent of $40,119 in savings and term deposits, the survey said. In Japanese money, the figure was up 11% from 1988 to about 5.7 million yen. The dollar total dropped about 2%, mostly because the yen weakened against the U.S. currency.

The United States ranked 14th, with per capita savings of $10,822, up 4% from 1988. The United States ranked eighth in last year’s survey and seventh in 1987. Many countries’ figures, however, were boosted by the weakened dollar.