Saved money

Can saved money keep up with prices?

What if you save what you earn? Interest rate data starts in 1996, so let's say you saved in 1996. Money in a piggy bank is still the same amount in 2025 (gray bar). In a bank time deposit, with the interest put back in each year, it grows about 3.3 times (green bar). Prices grew about 2.1 times in the same period (red bar). While prices more than doubled, the piggy bank money did not grow by a single won, so the piggy bank fell behind prices and the deposit got ahead.

Why?Year by year, though, deposit interest was lower than price rises 4 times. The biggest gap was in 2022: interest was about 2.7% while prices rose about 5.1%. In those years, saved money bought less.

Learn moreInterest minus the rise in prices is called the real interest rate. This calculation is before tax and assumes the money is put into a one-year deposit each year at that year's average rate (approximate).

Money deposited in 1996 · 2025

3.3×

calculated from Bank of Korea ECOS data and recorded ramen prices