Summary
In the 2nd quarter of 2014, the net lending of the Portuguese economy increased to 1.6% of GDP (1.4% in the previous quarter). This improvement was determined by the increase in gross savings, which was determined by an increase in disposable income (1.1%) larger than the increase of final consumption expenditure (0.7%).
Excluding the General Government sector, all domestic sectors registered improvements in their net lending/net borrowing. The net lending of the households increased to 5.4% of GDP in the year ending in 2nd quarter of 2014 (5.1% of GDP in the previous quarter). The households saving rate increased to 10.1% (0.5 percentage points more than in the previous quarter) mostly as a result of the improvement of households disposable income (1.3% change). The non-financial corporations and financial corporations balances stood respectively at -1.8% and 2.9% of GDP in the 2nd quarter of 2014 (-2.2% and 2.6% in the previous quarter, by the same order).
The net borrowing of general government increased from 4.1% of GDP in the year ending in the 1st quarter to 4.8%. This behaviour mainly reflected the increase in other capital expenditure and, to a lesser extent, in compensation of employees. In the 1st half of 2014, the net borrowing of general government was 6.5% of GDP (6.6% in the same period of the previous year).