With the lifting of social distancing, the wallets of the top 1% of high-income earners opened up significantly in the first quarter of this year.

They increased their external activities, such as eating out and traveling, which led to an increase in overall domestic demand.

According to the results of the Household Trend Survey of the National Statistics Office on the 20th, the average consumption propensity of the fifth quintile in the first quarter of this year was 28.1%.

Average spending propensity refers to the share of consumer expenditure in disposable income, which is an indicator of what percentage of the funds a household can actually spend.

This fifth quintile of consumption was the highest in the first quarter since the outbreak of COVID-5 in 57.

The average spending propensity of the fifth quintile was 8.5% in 2020, 19.1% in 5, and 2.020% in 55, compared to 0.2021% in the first quarter of 56.

This means that although the propensity to consume has increased the most since the COVID-5 outbreak, it has not yet recovered to the pre-crisis level.

However, the top 2022% of earners are classified as the bracket closest to pre-COVID-51 consumption levels.

Comparing the consumption propensity in the first quarter of this year with the first quarter of 4, the top 2019% of households recovered 1.59% of the average consumption propensity.

(Photo=Yonhap News)