Households registered a deficit of 21,500 million until March, a record since the 2008 crisis

Inflation

is beginning to show up in

.

in the first quarter for the first time in three years, beginning to normalize after the pandemic, and

, causing their

(the difference between what they spent and what they had) to shoot up to

, a record since the first quarter of 2008, at the dawn of the crisis.

This means that they

, but, according to the experts consulted by this means, it is not very worrying because in the last three years of the pandemic and post-pandemic,

savings cushion and had practically no need to financing.

The

between January and March was

this means that Spaniards not only did not save in the first three months of the year, but also

to be able to face their level of consumption .

This grew due to the economic reactivation after the pandemic and, above all, due to the

which caused household outlays for the same level of goods and services to be

higher.

In the first quarter of last year we managed to save 14,516 million euros, which means that there has been a

, according to the non-financial quarterly accounts of the institutional sectors published this Thursday by the INE.

Raymond Torres

, director of the

Economic Situation , explains to EL MUNDO that "in this quarter

, it is what dominates. There has been a

because income in real terms has decreased and for Trying to maintain consumption, households have pulled savings. This

because the volume of savings was very high, because it had been overaccumulated during the pandemic.

"The evolution is due, on the one hand, to the

that households are suffering in the face of peak inflation rates, which is progressively

, and to the

in the face of falls and market volatility. A combination of factors that has been linked to the uncorking effect of the dammed demand for social consumption in the face of the relaxation of measures against the pandemic", explains

chief economist of

investment skyrockets

The

a subsector (in this case, households) does not evolve only as a function of saving, but rather reflects the

In the first quarter, in addition to the first decrease, the subtrahend (investment) increased, widening that gap.

Specifically,

-with which investment is measured- amounted to

, the highest figure also since

.

Households reduced their savings and also invested more, something that was also influenced by the rise in prices.

"Predictably

before there are new price increases or a

, which are already observed in the Euribor, but which will accelerate with increases of rates that the ECB will carry out in a more pronounced way in the face of the negative inflation data that we have known this week and the uncertainties about its evolution in the face of the risks associated with the war in Ukraine, the supply of gas from Russia, food, etc." , continues explaining the expert.

Miguel Cardoso,

chief economist for Spain at

, specified in statements to this medium that this increase in investment has occurred above all "due to the impulse that investment in housing has observed."

He also believes that "from now on it is to be expected that these behaviors may intensify", in part because "

, despite the recent rise,

, make

Although the increase in investment seems to denote a strong increase in home purchases,

' expert doubts the data.

"Here

because the data on Gross Capital Formation do not match the data on investment in construction from the quarterly accounts. Statistically, this increase in investment is due to investment in housing, but

.

It is striking, in any case, that for the first time this quarter there is a difference not seen before of 6,000 million euros between

Formation and

which always show very similar figures.

The difference between one and the other would be only in

, such as

,

,

assets that it is true now could be more interesting as they are considered shelters against inflation.

"It coincides with the fact that

. This difference is normally very small and this quarter it is very large.

," says Torres.

The behavior of savings is very

, it always decreases in the first quarter (due to the January cost) and the third (due to vacations) and usually increases in the second and last (also due to the effect of the collection of extraordinary payments).

For this reason, it is important

or resort to

readings made by the INE.

The latter point to the fact that the savings rate on disposable income stood at

in the first quarter , a level much lower than in recent years but similar to that which existed before the pandemic.

In this sense,

, professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the

and associate researcher at

, defends that the data published this Thursday "are normal", both those related to savings and those related to the need for financing, and points out that "what was not usual is the data that was recorded during the pandemic".

Although he acknowledges that "it was expected that, in some way, the savings accumulated by the pandemic would be used to achieve a vigorous recovery, but due to the inflation situation it has had to be used for spending."

In his opinion,

, in which savings usually improve, to see if inflation continues to make a dent in savings and investment.

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