Disposable income for households in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) accelerated in the second quarter of this year, rising on average by 0.4% year-on-year, compared with a 0.1% increase in the January-March period. This improvement reflects the “strong growth” experienced by many of the countries in the group, the group said in a short note published this Monday. However, in Spain, the steady growth of GDP has not been materialized by the same driving forces as in household accounting. The increase in disposable income of residential households in the second quarter was less than 0.2%, slowing compared to the increase of more than 0.5 percentage points recorded in the first quarter.
When we analyze the evolution of GDP per capita, the snapshot changes. Latest data for the second quarter was also released this Monday. In this case, Spain’s performance is not only in line with, but also slightly better than, the OECD. GDP per inhabitant at the national level increased by 0.53% between April and June, while the OECD average increased by 0.5%, with significant heterogeneity.
The OECD groups 38 of the world’s most developed countries, which have vastly different pay, productivity, and tax structures. Of the 19 countries for which data on household disposable income is available in the second quarter, 12 recorded growth compared to the first three months of the year, seven slowed, but only four (Australia, Chile, Denmark and the Netherlands) recorded negative rates.
Poland, which is in the midst of an economic boom, was the state where real household income increased the most (3.1%) “due to low inflation, as well as increases in social security and net asset income,” and GDP per capita increased by 0.9%, the group said. The largest declines were seen in Chile (-0.6%) and the Netherlands (-0.6%), the former due to higher inflation and the latter due to lower incomes for the self-employed and higher taxes.
The organization’s statistics come at a time when, despite the uncertainties caused by trade wars and geopolitical tensions, Spain is developing strongly and emerging as the fastest-growing large developed economy for the second year in a row, according to all forecasts, by nearly 3%. However, public perception is less positive, and there are multiple factors that explain the discomfort. These include cumulative inflation exceeding 20% since 2021, outpacing salary growth, the real estate market at its peak, meaning that more and more income needs to be allocated to housing, and demographic growth, which means that income is partially distributed.
Despite the obstacles, real household incomes have recovered in recent years and are now above 2007 levels (up 9.3% in Q2 2025).
price moderation
In its publication, the OECD focuses on the economies that make up the G7, a group of the world’s most prosperous countries, of which Spain is not a member. Most households’ disposable income turned positive in the second quarter of this year, partly because the average inflation rate from July to September was lower than the same period last year. This is partly due to the easing of prices.
In Germany, where the macroeconomic scale continues to improve, household income increased by 0.3% in the second quarter, partially offsetting the almost 0.5 percentage point decline recorded in the first quarter. The UK has also improved this indicator by three-tenths, thanks to increased employee remuneration and lower tax burdens. This contrasts with the 0.8% decline recorded in the first three months of this year.
A similar trend was seen in France, where household disposable income recovered by 0.3% in the second quarter, in contrast to zero growth (0%) from January to March. The United States (from 0.5% to 0.6%) and Canada (from 0.1% to 0.2%) also recorded improvements, but Italy stalled. Growth in household disposable income in the second quarter (0.3%) was lower than in the first quarter (0.8%), which the OECD attributed primarily to lower employee compensation.
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