The increase in the cost of living is beginning to be felt in the economies of Spanish households. According to the latest data published this Wednesday by the Bank of Spain, Until the month of May, the families had withdrawn 24,600 million euros of the money they had in deposits.
In total, households accumulated at the end of the fifth month of the year 979,700 million euros, which It is the least amount since March of last year.. And it is far from the more than one billion euros that was exceeded last December. Only in the last month the drop in money deposited in national entities by households fell by 3,700 million euros.
These are figures that are in line with the drop in savings that was already seen in the last part of 2022. At the end of December, Spanish households placed their available liquidity rate, the one that is within reach in case of need, at 7.2% of disposable income. This percentage is the lowest since 2018, when it reached 5.6%.
The question that is in the air, at this moment, is how much travel is left for family savingswhen will it run out given all the circumstances of the current moment in the Eurozone: in a technical recession, with much more restrictive financial conditions that make mortgage payments more expensive, with the food basket on the rise, prices in the hotel industry clearly inflated and with wages that have not recovered from rejonazo of the rise in the CPI in Spain. The latest data from delinquency published by the Bank of Spain in April reflected a slight rise in defaults in banks, savings banks and credit cooperatives, up to 3.44%. However, this rate continues to be at minimum levels for the moment.
Meanwhile companies continue to increase their liquidity deposited in the bank. It must be borne in mind that in the face of the null profitability that large entities are giving to the savings of their clients, the banks have been remunerating the balance of corporations for months, which is calculated at levels of 2.5-3%. This reason is behind the increase of 5,300 million euros seen in May compared to April, up to a total of 298,900 million euros.