The savings rate of Spanish households is the highest in more than a year

The companies and families protect themselves from economic turmoil reducing spending and raising saving despite the fact that consumption has increased due to the inflationary crisis which, although subsiding, is still hitting the pockets of Spaniards hard. This is clear from yesterday’s published INA data on quarterly non-financial accounts of institutional sectors.

Spanish houses located in first trimester his year savings rate of 0.9% of your income available, compared to the negative rate of 1.5% they experienced in the same period in 2022 for the first time in three years. Compared to the last quarter of 2022, the household savings rate fell by more than 13 percent, from 14.5 percent to 0.9 percent.

A mattress worth almost HRK 1,900 million

In the first quarter of households they spent less than what they brought in. Thus, its disposable income increased by 10.1% on an annual level, to 202,347 million euros, while consumption amounted to 199,427 million euros, which is 7.4% more.

As a consequence of all this, households saved HRK 1,869 million in the first quartercompared to negative savings of 2.788 million in the same period in 2022. Excluding seasonal and calendar effects, the savings rate reached 11.8% of their disposable income in the first quarter, a rate 2.5 points higher than in the previous quarter and the highest since fourth quarter of 2021.

Less need for financing

Households could not use their savings to finance the investment they made in the first quarter of the year, which amounted to 14,296 million (-15.4%), so they expressed the need for financing of 12,936 million euros, which is the lowest figure since the first quarter of 2021 and 36.2% lower than in the same quarter of 2022.

The economy showed a financing capacity compared to the rest of the world of 13,083 million, a figure equivalent to 3.8% of GDP and contrasting with a deficit of 0.9% in the first quarter of 2022.

The result is a consequence of the financing ability of non-financial companies and financial institutions, as opposed to the financing needs of households and public administrations.