The Portuguese economy recorded a net lending of 3.2% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2024, which represents an improvement of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Gross National Income (GNI) and Gross Disposable Income (GDI) increased both by 1.6% (growths of 1.6% and 1.5%, by the same order, in the previous quarter). The increase in the economy's external balance reflected the improvement in the Households balance by 1.0 percentage points of GDP compared to the previous quarter.
The disposable income of Households sector increased by 2.6% compared to the previous quarter, with growths of 2.2% and 1.4% of compensation of employees and Gross Value Added (GVA), respectively. Final consumption expenditure grew by 1.1% (1.2% in the previous quarter), leading to an increase in the savings rate to 8.0% (6.6% in the previous quarter), which led to a net lending of 2.2% of GDP (1.2% of GDP in the previous quarter). In real terms, the adjusted GDI per capita of Households grew by 1.5% in the first quarter of 2024 (0.5% in the previous quarter).
The balance of Non-Financial Corporations remained unchanged at -2.2% of GDP. GVA increased by 1.5%, which was below the growth in compensation of employees paid (change rate of 2.4%), while Gross Capital Formation increased by 0.6%. In turn, the balance of Financial Corporations stood at 2.3% of GDP (0.2 percentage points less than in the previous quarter).
The balance of the General Government (GG) sector decreased by 0.3 percentage points in the year ending in the first quarter of 2024, shifting from a net lending of 1.2% to 0.9% of GDP. Considering quarterly values and not the year ending in the quarter, the GG balance in the first quarter of 2024 reached -118.9 million euros, corresponding to -0.2% of GDP, which compares with 1.1% in the same period of the previous year. Compared to the same period of the previous year, there was an increase of 7.3% in revenue and 11.0% in expenditure.