The evolution of the real income of Spanish households confirmed at the end of 2024 the upward trend that had been marking throughout the year. He advanced 3.5% in the year, almost twice the average of 1.8% registered in the Block of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to the last statistic of the agency published on Tuesday. The increase that Spain has pointed out is the second highest of all, only surpassed by Portugal (6.7%), but the improvement is somewhat milder with respect to 2023 (3.7%), when stagnating in the final stretch of the year with a flat growth in the fourth quarter.
Paris -based organism data takes into account the income of net taxes and inflation families, and added social benefits such as pensions. for registering in greater quarterly increase among all the countries of the club, of 2.2%. The OECD then attributed to the strong increases in the income due to the income of the property, that is, those linked to the yields that provide real estate, interests or dividends, and whose weight has been growing over total income both in Spain and in other countries.
In this tailor drawer formed by the income of the property are the yields obtained by the rent, whose price is at maximum. Housing market heating – also the house for sale is in record – is not exclusive to the national geography and is due to several factors, including a demand that has been strongly recovered after having necessarily stopped during the pandemic and, in the case of Spain, a strong pressure on the supply due to the shortage of available real estate. Furniture capital also enters this category, such as charges for shares or deposits, and patrimonial earnings. As a whole, capital yields – in gross terms – a rebound of more than 20% compared to 2023.
Although the OECD statistics do not break down the specific variables that in each country has caused the rise or decrease in the real income of households, other phenomena that may have impacted on the rebound in Spain are the updates of wages and benefits. ; The pensions and salary of officials 2%. Also, companies in general have risen the payrolls of their workers to recover the land lost during the last years of high inflation – in 2024, -.
In fact, statistics reflects the impact of the inflationary flare. The prices were turned on with the exit of the pandemia and exploded completely after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. In Spain, inflation exceeds that year 8.3% and the real income of households fell 2%, according to the OECD data. Now that prices have moderated, the situation is more stable in the block as a whole. “The annual increase in real family income per capita observed in most countries occurred when inflation was slowed compared to the previous year,” says the brief note that accompanies statistics.
Moderation
The available income of households analyzing the OECD is the sum of the final consumption spending of households and their savings, and includes both work returns and economic activity and investment, as well as pensions and other social benefits. Although in Spain it has retreated slightly, about two tenths, with respect to the results of 2023, in the whole of the club it has been higher in a tenth, going from 1.7% of two years ago to 1.8% of last year.
Almost all countries have pointed improvements. However, and as it cannot be otherwise in a group that brings together very different realities, the result is not homogeneous. Of the 19 OECD members with data available to prepare the statistics, two registered a setback on an annual basis with respect to the 2023 exercise: Australia, of just over one point, and Belgium, four tenths. The greatest advance, that of Portugal, is “mainly due to the remuneration of employees and a decrease in taxes paid,” says the body.
If only the data of the last four -month period are taken into account, up to seven countries registered a decrease in the real income of their homes: Chile, Greece, Denmark, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Germany. Of the 19 countries with available data, 9 recorded an increase, 7 a decrease and 3 did not experience changes. Among the economies of the G7, the real per capita income of households grew only in two countries: USA and the United Kingdom.
