Spanish households recorded the largest drop in real income per head among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from the fourth quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the third quarter of 2022, according to data from the ‘think tank’ of advanced economies.
Thus, the disposable income of Spaniards has fallen by 7.85% since the fourth quarter of 2019, weighed down largely by the worse evolution of gross operating surplus and mixed income, which is usually linked to the income of the self-employed.
Among the 21 OECD countries whose data were available, in addition to Spain only five other economies recorded a lower level of disposable income than before the pandemic: Portugal (-4.14%), the United Kingdom (-3.94%), Finland (-1.80%), the Czech Republic (-1.68%) and Denmark (-1.30%).
In the OECD as a whole, disposable income compared to the situation at the end of 2019 showed an improvement of 1.87%, with Poland (+7.16%) and Slovenia (+6.53%) as the countries with the greatest gains, ahead of Australia (+4.55%), Hungary (+4.26%) and Canada (+4.09%).
«Real household income per capita exceeded pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2022 in all OECD countries for which data are available, except the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom,» the organization said.
In the particular case of Spain and Portugal, the two countries lagging furthest behind in terms of disposable income developments, the OECD said the result can be partly explained by «the slow recovery of gross operating surplus and mixed household income since the early days of the pandemic.»
«This type of income is usually associated with self-employment and, in most countries, contributes about one-fifth of household disposable income,» the institution said.
Thus, it recalled that Portugal and Spain recorded large drops in this benchmark in the first half of 2020 and recovered slowly thereafter, while, in contrast, most OECD countries saw solid growth after the initial pandemic-related recession.
As for the evolution of real income per head in the third quarter of 2022, while in the OECD an increase of 0.2% was recorded, the first since the first three months of 2021, in Spain the figure fell back by 2.76%, completing four consecutive quarters in decline.
Real disposable income per inhabitant represents the total income received, after deducting taxes and social contributions and including monetary social benefits such as unemployment benefits. The figure reveals the maximum amount that a person can spend on consumption without reducing his or her net wealth.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
