The financial wealth of Spanish households increased by 5.1% in the last year to stand at 214.1% of GDP. The Financial Accounts of the Spanish Economy, published by the Bank of Spain, show that consolidated corporate and household debt reached €1.673 billion in the second quarter of 2021 (144.2 % of GDP), 1.8 % above the €1.644 billion recorded a year earlier (140.5 % of GDP). The increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio compared with the same quarter a year earlier was due to the rise in debt (numerator of the ratio) and, to a lesser extent, the decline in GDP (denominator of the ratio). Both corporations and households contributed to the increase in aggregate debt, as the consolidated debt of non-financial corporations increased from $933 billion to $961 billion, reaching 82.8% of GDP (if inter-company debt were included, the ratio would be 106.4%). Households’ debt increased from $711 billion to $712 billion (bringing the ratio to 61.4% of GDP).
To put this data in context, it is worth recalling that at the end of the first quarter of this year, loans to the private sector in developed economies exceeded 300% of their GDP.
