Household Saving in Portugal: Micro and Macroeconomic Evidence

The evolution of the household saving rate has attracted a growing interest in the debate on the Portuguese economy. This interest is based on the persistence of various macroeconomic imbal-ances, in particular the high external borrowing requ irements of the economy. Additionally, it is well known that the households saving rate declined sharply in the convergence period to the euro area and stood afterwards at relatively low levels in the European context, amounting to about 10 percent of disposable income in 2009 (Charts 1 and 2). However, despite the importance of the evolution of household savings in Portugal - as well as those of the other institutional sectors - the applied literature in this area is still rather scarce.