Allianz Global Wealth Report 2026

Getting high on low interest rates – How falling interest rates have driven savings higher

Our results show that the impact of interest rates on savings behavior is remarkably low. Demography and social policies have a stronger role to play here: precautionary and retirement provisions seem to take the lead in savings behavior in Europe.

German SMEs will face higher credit risk in 2020

Even though Germany narrowly avoided a technical recession in 2019[1], economic activity is still considerably weak as we expect GDP to grow by only +0.6% in 2020. In this environment, credit risk will most likely increase and be at top of mind for companies, lenders and investors.

U.S.. energy: Black not gold

The U.S. energy sector, particularly shale oil, is highly leveraged, with an averge gearing close to 200% and net debt to Ebitda ratio of 2.8x for our independent/shale basket of quoted companies.