Madrid (EFE).- Spanish families stopped the withdrawal of deposits and contributed 500 million euros in April, the first advance so far this year, predictably due to the improvement in remuneration by some entities, mainly foreign banks and entities that operate exclusively on the Internet.
After three months in which the balance of household deposits fell by 21,500 million euros, not only to face the rise in inflation, but also in search of products with greater profitability, in April the volume increased to 983,300 millions.
This represents barely an advance of 0.05% compared to the end of March, but in absolute numbers it translates into about 500 million. Even so, in the accumulated of the year the balance has decreased by 2.09%, which represents a fall of 21,000 million, according to data published this Monday by the Bank of Spain.
In the interannual rate, the volume is 0.11% higher than that of April 2023, which is 1,100 million euros more than then. For experts, this progress would be much greater if customers were not “forced” to transfer their money to funds or other products because most banks still do not remunerate deposits.
In the recent past, the trend for households had been to steadily increase bank deposits, as the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic worsened and households opted for greater prudence in their spending.
However, August 2022 was a turning point, since in that month there was a withdrawal of deposits of about 3,800 million; in September and October the balance also fell, although in November and December it grew again to over one trillion.
Companies withdraw 24,200 million in the year
In the case of company deposits, the volume fell by 2.32% in April compared to March, representing a drop of 7,000 million, up to 293,600 million. If the accumulated since the beginning of the year is taken into account, the withdrawal rises to 24,200 million.
In year-on-year comparison, company deposits have fallen by 2.59%, although in recent months they have evolved both upwards and downwards, due to current liquidity needs.