Spain's household wealth increases by 19.13% in Q2 2013

The net financial wealth of Spanish households (the difference between savings and loans) grew by 19.13 percent in the second quarter of 2013 when compared to the same period of 2012, the Bank of Spain reported on Monday. The Bank of Spain said that the wealth of Spanish households reached 922.640 billion euros (1,261.779 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter, the highest figure since 2007 when households had assets valued at 984.643 billion euros. The net wealth of Spanish households increased by 1.2 percent from the first quarter to the second one, which meant 10.979 billion euros more. Rises in wealth were mainly due to the reduction of debt: debts fell by 7.519 billion euros from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2013, while in annual terms they fell by 50.353 billion euros. On the other hand, financial assets rose by 3.460 billion euros from the first quarter to a total of 1.802 trillion euros in the second, while in annual terms they increased by 97.819 billion euros. The increase of Spain's households' wealth was therefore a result of the large fall in households' debt experienced by Spain's households. Spanish families try to pay down their debts, but at the same time the banks do not give credit as they used to before the crisis. (1 euro = 1.37 U.S. dollars)