2023-08-28 19:00:06
In Locmaria-Plouzané (Finistère), August 26, 2019. FRED TANNEAU / AFP
“Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account is 5% per year and inflation is 7%. At the end of a year, will you be able to buy, with the sum invested, more, as much or less than today? »
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This is one of the questions posed by the insurer and asset manager Allianz to a thousand people in seven countries (Germany, Australia, Spain, United States, France, Italy and United Kingdom) to assess the culture finances of their inhabitants. To this question, only 57% of the French people questioned answer correctly: “less”.
In France, the results of this survey on knowledge of financial mechanisms (interest rates, inflation, risk assessment) and their consequences in terms of investment choices are certainly improving compared to the equivalent survey conducted in 2020, but they are still far from being brilliant: one person in four (26%) does not have the financial culture necessary to make informed decisions, estimates the German group. Conversely, only 10% of French people have a “high” level, two times less than in Spain and three times less than in the United States.
German peculiarity
The survey also shows that the gap between women and men, although it has narrowed over the years, remains marked: 29% of French women have a low level of financial education, compared to 22% of men. However, explains Marion Dewagenaere, director of Allianz Patrimoine, “you don’t have to be a financial professional to make wise choices: going from a low level to a medium level allows you to close the bulk of the gap in order to be able to make rational investment decisions and profitable ».
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The gap between men and women to the detriment of the latter is observed in all the countries included in the study with the exception of Germany: across the Rhine, women are much more likely than men to have a medium (59% versus 53%) or high (22% versus 10%) level of financial literacy.
A peculiarity which can be explained by the specificity of the distribution of roles within German households. “In Germany, the proportion of women who are the sole decision-makers in the household is very high, explains Marion Dewagenaere. The gap between men and women can therefore be reduced through practice and experience: in countries where women are called upon to make decisions, experience builds trust. »
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