With rising inflation and savings rates hitting historic lows, the first seven months of 2021 has been a challenging time for savers. Saying this, 2021 is providing some optimism for savers as rates started to stabilise at the end of spring and have started to rise over the summer.
Average rates often give a good overview of what is happening in the savings market. At the start of the year, the average rate on easy access savings accounts stood at 0.18%. This fell to 0.17% in February and fell further to a historic low of 0.16% in March and remained at this rate until June. Since then, the average rate has increased slightly to stand at 0.17% in July.
Similarly, the average one year fixed bond and longer-term fixed bond rates reached historic lows earlier this year. At the start of 2021, the average one year fixed bond rate stood at 0.49% and fell to 0.46% in February. The rate continued to fall until it reached a historic low of 0.42% in April but started to rise again the next month to stand at 0.44% in May. The average rate continued to rise to stand at 0.52% in July.
Again, the average longer-term fixed bond rates reached a record low this year when it fell to 0.65% in March, where it remained in April. The average longer-term fixed bond rate stood at 0.70% in January but consistently fell in subsequent months until it reached the record low. After April the average rate began to rise, resulting in it standing at 0.77% in July.
Average rates, however, only tell part of the story as higher than average rates are available to savers. This means that to get a clearer idea of what has been happening in the savings charts this year, we’ve also compared the top rates available in January to the top saving rates currently available in the charts.
