Family savings rise in the Balearics

PALMA
SAVING by families on the Balearics will this year amount to 13.3 percent of family income, 5.4 percentage points higher than the national average, according to the economic forecasts for the autonomous regions made by the Saving Banks Foundation (Funcas).

So family saving on the Balearics will increase in comparison with last year, when it was 11.1 percent of family income, contrasting with the decrease predicted for the rest of Spain this year, given that the national average was 13 percent in 2006 and is predicted to be 7.9 percent for 2007.

The contrast between the Balearics and the national average is shown more clearly if you look at the regional savings figure for 2007, which includes families, companies and public administrations. The figure is 38.7 percent in the Balearics and 22.9 percent nationally.

Business savings on the islands are 14.4 percent of income this year, 5.1 percentage points above the national average. The Balearic public administrations savings are 15.3 percent of income, also very much above the national average of 4.5 percent.

With regard to regional levels of public debt, the Balearics are similar to the national average, with 5.2 and 5 percent respectively.
By autonomous regions, the Balearics is the one which has the highest regional savings in Spain, with 38.7 percent, followed by Madrid with 31.5 percent, then Navarra with 30.6 percent, Catalonia with 30.2 percent, and the Basque region with 28.6 percent. At the other end of the scale, the Balearics are the fourth region where families save least, only ahead of Galicia with 11.9 percent, Andalucia with 10.1 percent and Madrid with 6.2 percent.