Australia's world class savings rate

Australia's household savings rate has gone from the cellar to the penthouse in recent years and is forecast to stay there.

An OECD ranking of household savings rates puts Australia fifth among the 23 countries surveyed, with 10.4 per cent of household disposable income going into savings in 2011.

Switzerland is top of the table, with a savings rate of 12.1 per cent in 2011, followed by Sweden (11.7 per cent), Germany (11.3 per cent) and Belgium (10.7 per cent).

Back in 2006, before the financial crisis brought the country's borrowing binge to an end, Australia's household savings rate was 2.1 per cent. Its OECD ranking that year was 16th.

OECD economists are forecasting that Australian households will maintain their high savings rate. The forecast for the current year is 10.3 per cent and for 2013 the expected rate is 10.5 per cent.

Among the weaker savers last year were New Zealand, with 0.6 per cent of disposable household income going into savings, Denmark (negative 1.7 per cent), the Netherlands (2.3 per cent), the Slovak Republic (3.1 per cent) and the United States (4.6 per cent).