Real income per capita down in both euro area and EU

Europeans’ household real income per capita decreased in the fourth quarter of 2022 by 0.5 per cent, after a decrease of 0.1% in the third quarter of 2022. New data released by Eurostat shows that household real consumption per capita decreased by 1.2 per cent in the euro area, in the fourth quarter of 2022, after remaining stable in the previous quarter.

In the EU, household real consumption per capita decreased by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, after an increase of 0.5 per cent in the previous quarter. At the same time, household real income per capita decreased by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, after a decrease of 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2022.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, household gross disposable income (in nominal terms, seasonally adjusted) increased by 2.2 per cent in the euro area and by 2.4 per cent in the EU. That increase is mainly explained by the large positive contribution of compensation of employees. All the other components contributed positively as well.

Meanwhile, the saving rate increased by 0.8 percentage points (pp) in the euro area and by 0.6 pp in the EU, compared with the previous quarter.

The investment rate of households, on the other hand, decreased by 0.3 pp in the euro area and the EU.