Spanish households saved 20.9% less in the first quarter than a year earlier.

Spanish households' savings rate in the first quarter stood at 4.8% of their gross disposable income, 1.6 percentage points lower than the 6.4% recorded in the same period in 2024.

According to data published this Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), Spanish families saved 11.913 billion euros between January and March, 20.9% less than in the same period last year (-3.155 billion), while they increased their consumer spending by 7.1% , to 234.118 billion euros, and increased their investment by 9.1%, to 18.089 billion euros (1.503 billion more).

Thus, households reported disposable income of €245.976 billion in the first quarter, 5.1% more than in the same period in 2024.

Household savings were insufficient to finance the investments they made in the first three months of the year, leading to a financing need of €6.871 billion, more than three times that of the first quarter of 2024.

In the first quarter of the year, the Spanish economy showed a financing capacity of €10.1 billion, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP and lower than in the first quarter of last year, when the Spanish economy's financing capacity relative to the rest of the world amounted to €13.787 billion. This is due to the financing needs recorded by households and public administrations (PAs), which reported a deficit of €4.719 billion (2.7% of GDP) in the first quarter, lower than the €5.38 billion deficit for the same period in 2024, representing a relative decrease of 12.3%.

Non-financial corporations, for their part, showed a financing capacity of €8.993 billion in the first quarter, down from €12.411 billion in the same period in 2024, while non-financial institutions posted a surplus of €12.967 billion, up from €8.972 billion the previous year.

Regarding the economy's gross national income, the INE estimates it stood at €397.364 billion, 5.5% higher than in the same period in 2024. This increase is explained by a 7% year-on-year increase in the remuneration of resident employees and, to a lesser extent, by the growth in the gross operating surplus (+3.3%). Gross national disposable income grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, reaching €395.771 billion.