Summary
The saving rate of households (including Non-profit Institutions Serving Households) was 8.6% in the year ended in the 2nd quarter of 2009, 1.6 percentage points more than the registered in the year ended in the previous quarter.  The raise of gross saving and the drop of consumption and investment led to the increase of the net lending of this sector, which reached 3.3% of GDP (1.8% in the year ended in the 1stquarter of 2009). This evolution and the reduction of the net borrowing of the corporations sector (financial e non-financial corporations) more than compensated the increase of General Government net borrowing (which attained 6.9% of GDP in the year ended in the 2nd quarter against 4.3% in the year ended in the 1st quarter of 2009). As a result there was a slight improvement in the net borrowing of the Portuguese economy, from 10.4% in the year ended in the 1st quarter to 9.3% of the GDP in the year ended in the 2nd quarter of 2009.