Britons have saved nearly £200bn during the pandemic but will this now fuel a recovery? It’s complicated

The CEBR today forecasts that the UK savings ratio will hit 19 per cent of disposable income by the end of 2020, a huge increase on last year, writes James Moore

The pandemic has forced Britons to save but what will they do with the money they have squirrelled away?  (PA)

While Covid-19 has delivered a devastating economic blow to some people, others have prospered. What the latter group does next will be crucial to how UK plc performs next year.

Britons who’ve held onto jobs that provide them with disposable income after all their expenses are covered have had precious little to spend it on with restrictions aimed at containing the virus curtailing most, if not all, of their normal activities.

In April, the Centre for Economics & Business Research (CEBR) forecast that households would accumulate as much as £23bn more in savings during during the second quarter of 2020 than in a normal year.