What is the direction of causality between the fiscal deficit and the private sector savings rate?

There is a strong correlation between the fiscal deficit and the private savings rate, but the causality between the fiscal deficit and the private sector savings rate can go in both directions: Governments react to a rise in the private savings rate by running fiscal deficits, whether in the case of a usual recession (due to a fall in demand caused by excess savings) or because economic agents cannot consume or invest ( like in 2020); Ricardian neutrality means that private economic agents react to an increase in the fiscal deficit by increasing their savings rate, as they expect fiscal consolidation in the future. Actual d evelopments in the United States, the euro zone, Germany, France and Japan show s: A weak causality from private savings to the fiscal deficit; In the United States, France, the euro zone and Japan, a causality going from the structural fiscal deficit to private savings, which is quite consistent with Ricardian neutrality.