Figure 2

Third paragraph of a Task 2 reading:
So has the recent instability of the stock market caused Americans to store their money in bank savings accounts, which are usually more secure and stable?  This doesn’t appear to be the case. In 2003, the percentage of household income that Americans saved fell to under two percent for only the second time in eight years. The percentage of household income saved in 2003 was less than half the rate Americans were saving at only four years earlier, in 1999, when they saved four percent of their income.  Unfortunately, this trend shows no signs of improving—the percentage of household income that Americans saved went down more from 2002 to 2003 than it had in any year since 1995.  Furthermore, the U.S. seems to be falling behind the world’s other remaining super-power, China, in terms of household savings; the gap between the percentage of household income saved by American citizens and the percentage of household income saved by Chinese citizens doubled between 1998 and 2003, with America lagging far behind China in percentage of income saved.