By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | In Spain, households’ financial assets fell by 3.5% in 2011 due to a downturn in acquisition activity and especially market declines recorded in the third quarter of last year after the deterioration of the sovereign crisis. This is compounded by the collapse of housing prices, which caused housing sector wealth to fall by 6.6% dragging total net wealth down 51 percentage points of GDP.
In 2011 it also was reported a change in the composition of household savings with a fall not seen up until now in the deposits with fixed maturity, that in the fourth quarter was partly offset by increase in stocks other than shares, which is even more pronounced in corporate asset acquisitions.
Between the two segments, €29 billion were acquired, distributed between notes issued by financial institutions and investment in public debt. On the liabilities side, in both segments there was a clear acceleration of deleveraging, which brought about a fall by six percentage points of GDP in the case of the corporate sector and four percentage points for households. This trend will continue in 2012.
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