The net borrowing of the Portuguese economy decreased to 0.7% of GDP in the year ending in the 3rd quarter of 2012 (2.1% in the previous quarter).
In the case of households, there was an increase of net lending from 5.0% to 5.9% of GDP, mainly associated with the growth of current savings. Reflecting a strong reduction in consumption, the household savings rate reached 11.2%, 1.1 percentage points (p.p.) more than the observed in the year ended in the 2nd quarter.
The net borrowing of non-financial corporations was 3.7% of GDP, decreasing by 0.6 p.p., mainly reflecting the contraction of both investment and compensations of employees. Financial corporations recorded a net lending of 0.6% of GDP, 0.2 p.p. lower than the observed in the previous quarter.
In the first three quarters of 2012 the General government’s net borrowing stood at 5.6% of GDP, while in the same period of 2011 it was 6.7%.
The decrease in Unit labour costs accentuated, mainly as a result of the decline in the average pay per worker and the increase of productivity.