Summary
In the year ended in the 4th quarter 2010, the net borrowing of the Portuguese economy stood at 8.5% of GDP, 0.7 percentage points (p.p.) less than the observed in the year ended in the previous quarter. This evolution was mainly associated to a reduction of the net borrowing of General Government (from 10.1% to 8.7% of GDP). This reduction was partly associated to the effect of several specific factors which had a positive impact in the General Government balance of capital transfers. The reduction also reflects the improvement in the balance of current transactions. The Households’ net lending decreased to 4.1% of GDP (4.3% in the previous quarter), reflecting the reduction of their saving rate from 10.3% of disposable income in the year ended in the third quarter, to 9.8% in the following.