There was also a reinforcement of investment in housing of around 4.4% in the last year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
According to the INE’s Quarterly National Accounts by Institutional Sector, the household savings rate stabilised at 12.5% of disposable income in the third quarter. This stabilisation was determined by the growth of Gross Disposable Income (GDI) by 1.6%, “combined with the 1.6% increase in final consumption expenditure (1.4% in the previous quarter)”.
It is worth highlighting that, in real terms – that is, taking inflation into account – final consumption increased by 1% in the year ending in the third quarter of 2025, as highlighted by INE in the bulletin.
Investment in housing also strengthened during the summer. “Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) of households, which essentially corresponds to GFCF in housing, increased by 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025 (4.3% in the previous quarter). The household investment rate (measured by the ratio between GFCF and disposable income) reached 6.1%, 0.1 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter,” concludes INE.
Meanwhile, household financing capacity stood at 4.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 0.2 percentage points lower than in the previous quarter and also compared to the same period last year. “This behaviour stemmed mainly from the 4.4% increase in Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), which was higher than the increase in savings (1.6%),” he explains.