Households’ gross disposable income per capita up 11.9 per cent in 2024

Households’ gross disposable income per capita increased by 11.9 per cent in 2024, compared to 9.8 per cent in 2023 at current prices, data published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) shows.

On the other hand, real households’ gross disposable income per capita, which excludes the impact of inflation, increased by 8.6 per cent in 2024 compared to 3.2 per cent in 2023. Real households’ adjusted gross disposable income per capita, which includes individual goods and services that households receive free of charge from government and NPISHs – i.e. social transfers in kind – increased by 8.4 per cent in 2024 compared to 2.3 per cent in 2023.

Household final consumption expenditure in 2024 was estimated at €10,065 million, representing increases of 9.3% in nominal terms and 6.0% in real terms. On a per capita basis, household final consumption expenditure rose by 6.2% in nominal terms and 3.1% in real terms.

The slowdown observed in the growth of final consumption expenditure per capita in 2024, is due to the impact of Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) which was exceptionally high in 2023.

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.

Households’ savings were particularly high in 2020, due to a drop in household final consumption expenditure. Since 2020, the gross households’ saving rate 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.

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.