The net lending of the economy stood at 1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year ending in the first quarter of 2017, 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) more than in the previous quarter.
This evolution reflected different behaviours of the resident institutional sectors. There have been improvements in the sector of General Government (GG), whose net borrowing fell by 0.3 p.p., from 2.0% of GDP in the year ending in fourth quarter of 2016 to 1.7%, and in the Non-Financial Corporations’ net lending, which increased by 0.2 p.p. to 0.6% of GDP. The balance of Financial Corporations stabilized at 2.2% of GDP. The net lending of Households decreased by 0.3 p.p. to 0.5% of GDP, in the first quarter of 2017. This reduction reflected the evolution of the Households’ saving rate, which was 3.8%, less 0.5 p.p. than in the previous quarter, as a result of the higher growth of final consumption expenditure compared to disposable income (1.0% and 0.5%, respectively).
Taking into account the quarterly figures and not the year ending in the quarter, the GG balance stood at around -965.6 million Euros in the first quarter of 2017, corresponding to -2.1% of GDP (-3.3% in same period of the previous year). It should be noted that the GG balance does not include any impact of the recapitalisation of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, given that the statistical treatment of this operation is still under analysis.