Even though interest rates are virtually zero, the Dutch added almost €20bn to their savings accounts in the first six months of this year, as the lockdown reduced opportunities to go out and spend.

In total, the Dutch have almost €400bn in savings accounts, the Telegraaf reported on Friday. The €20bn increase is the equivalent of the total savings added in 2018 and 2019, the paper said, quoting central bank figures.

‘People could not go to the theatre or out to dinner and so had more money left over,’ Wim Suyker, of the government’s macro-economic planning agency CPB told the paper.

At the same time, people who were worried about their jobs or the impact of the economic downturn have also been putting more money aside.

‘Everyone knows someone who has lost income, perhaps as a freelancer,’ Rabobank economist Carlijn Prins told the paper. ”So it is hardly surprising that people are putting money aside to be able to pay their way in the future.’

The bank, she said, had recently done research which showed the more pessimistic people are about the financial prognoses, ‘the more likely they are to have been saving money.’