Growing anxiety about the global economy due to Brexit and the recent election of Donald Trump in the US had a big impact on consumers with the numbers feeling they are not saving enough rising dramatically last month.
The Nationwide UK (Ireland) Savings Index, which measures consumer sentiment, declined to 111 points in February from 121 points a month earlier.
The Savings Attitude sub-index, one of two sub-indices that make up the main index, recorded its biggest drop since April 2016, as the level of people thinking they do not save enough as they should rose by more than 11 per cent to its highest since the index began.
The number of households that said they would spend any surplus money they received increased marginally to 14.5 per cent in February. The proportion that said they would save any extra finances rose to 33.5 per cent, while the proportion of people who said they would invest fell to 9.8 per cent, 2.8 percentage points less than in the same month last year.
"Brexit, and its attendant impact on the Irish economy, is clearly playing a bigger role in public discourse and this, together with the election of Donald Trump as US president and his economic plans, is making the Irish consumer more aware of the need for precautionary saving," said Brendan Synnott, managing director of Nationwide UK (Ireland).
