Local household gross disposable income per capita increased by 11.9 per cent last year, according to provisional estimates released by the National Statistics Office on Friday.
This compares to 9.8 per cent in 2023 at current prices.
The same national data shows that real household gross disposable income per capita rose by 8.6 per cent last year, while the savings rate was estimated at 19.4 per cent of gross disposable income.
Gross disposable income per capita excludes the impact of inflation.
Real households’ adjusted gross disposable income per capita, which includes individual goods and services that households receive free of charge from the government, such as social transfers, increased by 8.4 per cent in 2024 compared to 2.3 per cent in 2023.
Final consumption expenditure
Household final consumption expenditure in 2024 was estimated at €10,065 million, representing increases of 9.3% in nominal terms and 6% in real terms, the NSO said.
On a per capita basis, household final consumption expenditure rose by 6.2% in nominal terms and 3.1% in real terms
The NSO explained a slowdown in the growth of final consumption expenditure per capita in 2024 as a result of the impact of Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured, which it said was exceptionally high in 20231.
In 2024, gross households’ savings were estimated at €2,418 million.
The gross households’ savings rate stood at 19.4 per cent of gross disposable income – the third largest rate in the EU and 4.3 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in the previous year.
Savings
Households’ savings were particularly high in 2020 due to a drop in household final consumption expenditure.
Since 2020, the gross households’ saving rate has remained relatively high compared to pre-COVID levels. The increase in gross households’ savings in 2024 is mainly attributed to an increase of €1,064 million in compensations receivable by employees.
Investment
National data published on Friday also shows that household investment reached €904 million in 2024 compared to €852 million in the previous year.
In turn, the investment rate of households stood at 7.2 per cent of their gross disposable income, 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous year.
After considering the balance of capital transfers in the sector, households recorded a net lending of €1,917 million compared to the €1,195 million estimated in 2023.
