Spanish households spend more, but consume less. This is one of the main conclusions of the Household Budget Survey published by the INE, which determines that the average expenditure per household in 2022 increased by 7.9% with respect to the previous year, to reach €31,568.
This figure exceeds pre-pandemic levels in global terms, with an increase of 4.4% compared to 2019. However, these figures are magnified by the effect of inflation, so if price rises are removed, average household spending grew by 2% in 2022, although not enough to reach pre-pandemic levels, at 3.2% below 2019. This means that households have had to spend more money on current expenditures but have reduced their consumption.
In terms of average spending per person, the figure rose to €12,780, an increase of 8.5% compared to 2021, a percentage that falls to 2.5% if the effect of prices is taken into account.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels continued to be the main economic item spent by families, €10,243, after increasing by 3.5% in the last year and accounting for almost a third of the total household budget (32.4%).
The Autonomous Communities with the highest average expenditure per person in 2022 were the Basque Country (€15,103), Comunidad de Madrid (€14,326) and Comunidad Foral de Navarra (€14,190), while the Canary Islands (€10,698), Castilla-La Mancha (€10,959) and Extremadura (€11,134) recorded the lowest average expenditure per person.
