Are your Dutch savings losing value? The real return, explained

Published 2026-11-09 · 3 min read

Your bank pays interest, yet your savings buy less every year. How the real return works, with today's Dutch figures and the box 3 angle.

Interest lands in your savings account every month or year, so it feels as if your money is growing. But what matters is not how many euros you have. It is what those euros can buy. That is what the real return measures.

The one-line definition

The real return is your interest rate minus inflation. If your account pays 3% and prices rise 2%, your purchasing power grows by roughly 1% a year. If your rate is below inflation, your balance rises in euros but falls in what it buys.

Today's Dutch numbers

In September 2026, the average rate on instant-access savings accounts of Dutch households was 1.26% according to the ECB. Inflation (HICP) stood at 3.0% compared with a year earlier. That puts the real return on an average savings account at -1.74%.

These figures update automatically every day from the official sources at the bottom of this page.

What a negative real return means for €10,000

Suppose you leave €10,000 in an average savings account for a year. Some interest arrives, so your balance ends slightly higher. But if inflation runs clearly above that rate, the same basket of groceries, energy and rent costs noticeably more by the end of the year. The difference is purchasing power you lost, even though not a single euro left your account.

Over several years the effect adds up. At a real return of minus 2% a year, the same savings buy nearly a fifth less after ten years. Run your own numbers in the savings calculator, which shows both your balance and its value in today's money.

Why this happens

Banks set savings rates based on their own funding needs and competition, not on inflation. Inflation is driven by the wider economy. Nothing ties the two together, so the average savings rate can stay below inflation for long periods.

The average also hides differences. Some banks pay more, and fixed-term deposits currently pay 2.65% on average. Whether such a rate beats inflation depends on when you compare.

Then there is box 3

In the Netherlands you also pay box 3 tax on savings above the tax-free allowance (€59,357 per person in 2026). The tax authority uses a deemed return on bank balances of 1.28%, regardless of what you actually earn. For larger balances, the real return after tax can therefore be lower still. See the box 3 calculator for your own situation.

Cash still has a job

This does not make saving pointless. Money you may need soon, such as an emergency fund, belongs somewhere safe and instantly available, even if it loses a little purchasing power. The point is the right size: many planners suggest three to six months of essential spending. The emergency fund calculator helps you size that buffer.

It only becomes a problem when far more than that buffer sits in a low-rate account for years.

Three practical checks

1. Compare your own rate with inflation. Look up the rate on your savings account and set it against the inflation figure above.
2. Size your buffer. Decide how much cash you really want instantly available, and treat everything above it as money that could work harder.
3. Look at the long run. The inflation calculator shows what a euro from ten or twenty years ago is worth today.

The bottom line

A savings account is a good place for safety and the short term, but at the average rate your wealth does not grow in real terms. Knowing your real return is the first step toward deciding how much to keep in savings and how much to put to work. The next chapter compares brokers for when you are ready to invest.

Sources

1. ECB, interest rates on Dutch household savings (MIR)
2. Eurostat, HICP inflation for the Netherlands
3. Belastingdienst, box 3

Figures in the text update daily from the sources listed. Information, not financial advice.