Inflation will subtract 42,000 million purchasing power from Spanish families between this year and 2023

• Only 20% of households saved in the pandemic and have an extra cushion to weather inflation

Inflation has

a rise in the cost of living, that is, an

that is already calculated for this year at

, to which an additional

.

In total, families will have

Prices in Spain have risen an average of

in 2022 -with data up to September- and it is expected that in 2023 they will rise an

according to forecasts.

This means that in the absence of similar increases in income (which are not taking place), families will continue to lose purchasing power.

According to calculations by

shared with EL MUNDO, the increase that has occurred this year of 5.5% in the remuneration of employees (which is influenced by both the increase in employment and wages), together with the increase in another type of income (non-wage remuneration, dividends, interest, etc.) or the 5.8% rise in public transfers, once taxes and other deductions have been deducted, reflect an

to which

The subtraction yields a result in real terms of loss of purchasing power.

"

This is a

. This percentage is for all families, which includes those who found a job (something that mitigates the total impact).The reduction in purchasing power discounting the effect of employment (which is perceived by most families) is therefore even greater:

, according to our estimates", explains

, director of the situation of Funcas.

It refers to the fact that the total number of families includes

, while the previous year they were unemployed, and for them -despite inflation- there has been a gain in purchasing power.

Its inclusion in the total distorts somewhat the loss of purchasing power that has occurred in any average household in which the same level of employment has been maintained (the same people and in the same positions continue to work).

By

, given that inflation will continue to rise and incomes will not grow at the same rate,

the equivalent of €8.1 billion.

Thus, two years in a row of loss of purchasing power would be chained, after a

in which households had

, especially due to the improvement in employment that occurred that year compared to that of the pandemic.

We start saving less

Despite the fact that the Spanish are suffering a drop in purchasing power this year (with their income, even if they rise slightly, they can buy much less),

, but this is it is translating into saving less, at rates similar to those before the pandemic.

If they had to pull the savings from 2020 and 2021, in 2022 there would be no savings, and the data shows that families are saving, even if it is less than in the last two years.

The

and the administrative

imposed in

to contain the virus prevented Spaniards from spending as they had in the past.

Travel, leisure and even certain purchases were reduced to a minimum (new clothes were not needed to be at home) hence households managed to

in that year:

according to the Bank of Spain data.

In the year

there were still some limitations to the activity -especially in the first half of the year-, hence the savings for that year were also unusually large (

) and, with the arrival of

, with the pandemic overcome and the restrictions eliminated, everything seemed to indicate that households

, but

Economic uncertainty and inflation have impoverished families and consumption has once again been put in check, because everything is more expensive (average inflation is 8.98%) and because it is feared that more funds will be needed in the future.

For this reason, households have once again increased their savings, although at a slower rate this time.

In the first eight months of the year they have preserved

according to data from the Bank of Spain, but

(that is, what they save with respect to their disposable income) has dropped to the point of assuming at the end of the second quarter

on average, as collected by the INE.

Although the data from the Bank of Spain seem to indicate that savings in deposits is being stronger this year than last year, the truth is that total household savings include money deposited in other financial instruments (stock market, bonds, insurance, etc.). pension plans, etc.), hence

of how savings fluctuate.

"This drop of more than five points in the savings rate means going from preserving 108,000 million euros in 2021 to 71,000 million in 2022, that is,

expert

, although he believes that here it is It is important to point out the

: "the people who continue to be able to save the same, consume the same; but there are others who have already had to pull the savings and have even spent it all, and those are the ones who stop consuming".

Savings are concentrated by 20% of families

He refers to the fact that the problem is that

among all households (if savings were the same in all households, each one would have saved 2,241.5 euros in 2021 and 1,797.4 euros in which goes from 2022, only in deposits);

but according to the European Central Bank (ECB),

, which means that all that money is accumulated by few hands.

Given that

there are

, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE),

in recent years, at a rate of 28,121.6 euros each one in deposits between 2021 and 2022. All the others would not have been able to separate any of their income for savings and would have been forced to spend everything they entered, to have to go into debt to maintain a level of consumption or even to have to reduce their shopping level.

Although households have not had to pull from that savings that they managed to accumulate during the pandemic, the truth is that it has been eroded by the effect of inflation: assuming that the Spanish have maintained this year the same level and composition of consumption as the Last year,

since there has been a loss of purchasing power equivalent to 3,800 million euros due to the mere existence of inflation (which is on average 8.98% so far this year), while the

would be equivalent to

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