New historical record of the investment of homes spanish in Treasure letters. At the end of September, families had 21,352 million of euros allocated to these short-term public debt products (three, six, nine and twelve months), as published this Thursday by the Bank of Spain. It’s about the highest number since the statistics started in 2002, compares with the barely 99 million of the same month of 2022, and represents an increase of 1,004 million euros and a 4.9% compared to August. Of course, that month-on-month increase was the smaller since citizens began to increase their letter portfolio in May 2022.
For the second consecutive month, yes, households are the greatest owners of letters, a position they reached in August for the first time since data became available. Thus, in September they had the 29.8% of the 71,485 million of euros of these securities in circulation, when a year before they barely owned 0.1%. Behind, and increasingly further away, were the group of owners foreign (26.1%), which have been reducing their portfolio of bills since February 2022. The families already became the first Spanish owner of bills in May. In fact, they have increased their relative weight with respect to banks (15.05%), companies (8.9%), investment funds (8.2%), public administrations (5.2%), insurance companies (3.4%), pension funds (1.9%) and the Bank of Spain (0.4%).
The unusual escalation of interest that the State pays for Treasury bills in the last year explains the behavior of households. In the auctions of September last year, it committed to paying between 0.735% at three months and 1.423% at one year, while in the same placements in the same month last summer the rates were between 3.49% and 3.68%. Behind this are the rate increases approved by the European Central Bank (ECB) to tame high inflation. The main interest rate has increased from 0% to 4.5% since July 2022, while the deposit facility – the interest with which the money stored in banks is remunerated, the most relevant in the current context – has went from -0.5% (he returned less than what he saved them) to 4%.
Little for deposits
The increase in household investment in bills has also contributed to the bank resistance to raise the remuneration of term deposits despite the rise in official rates. The average interest on new deposits, thus, has gone from 0.37% in September 2022 to 2.326% last September, a level still notably lower than that of bills and also the average of the euro zone (3.08%). Furthermore, the 89.4% of the money that households keep in the entities is now in current accountswhose average interest is just 0.131%.
Regarding Treasury debt with terms greater than one year (such as bonds and debentures), households closed September with 2,037 million of euros invested in these securities, 1,058 million more than a year before and 94 million more than in August. Investment in debt autonomous communities has also increased in twelve months, but it is much more modest: it has gone from 72 to 73 million of euros.
Likewise, the value of the investment of individuals in companies IBEX 35 decreased by 0.2% in September compared to August and increased by 26% compared to September 2022, up to 87,293 million euros. The behavior of the selective in the same periods (-0.81% and +19.5%) implies that citizens have raised your investment in these companies by 4,514 million in one year and by 531 million compared to August.