Statistical Press Release – Non-financial sector indebtedness – March 2020
End-of-period positions
In March 2020 non-financial sector indebtedness stood at €725.0 billion, of which €322.4 billion referred to the public sector and €402.6 billion to the private sector.
Compared with February 2020, non-financial sector indebtedness increased by €1.3 billion. This increase was due to the €1.7 billion raise in private sector indebtedness, partly offset by the €0.4 billion decrease in public sector indebtedness (Chart 1).
The decrease in public sector indebtedness was reflected in the reduction of external financing (€2.1 billion), partly offset by an increase in financing granted by the financial sector (€1.4 billion) and by corporations (€0.2 billion) (Chart 2).
Regarding private sector indebtedness, corporations’ indebtedness increased by €1.9 billion, mainly through the increase in financing granted by the financial sector. This increment was partly offset by the €0.2 billion decrease in households’ indebtedness, mostly granted by the financial sector.
Annual rates of change (1)
In March 2020 the annual rate of change (arc) of private corporations’ total indebtedness was 0.6%, 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) more than the previous month. The annual rate of change of total households indebtedness decreased by 0.2 p.p., standing at 0.8%.
Today, Banco de Portugal starts publishing new details about the annual rates of change of non-financial sector indebtedness statistics. The press release regarding its disclosure can be accessed here.
Next update: 23 Jun. 2020
Notes
(1) Annual rates of change in indebtedness reflect developments in total debt (including loans, debt securities and trade credits) of the non-financial private sector to the other institutional sectors (information on a consolidated basis). Annual rates of change are calculated on the basis of an index built from derived transactions, i.e. changes in end-of-period positions excluding reclassifications, revaluations, exchange rate variations and other changes that do not arise from financial transactions.
