Nonfinancial sector accounts, 2nd quarter 2022
In the first half of 2022, gross household saving rate significantly lower
Compared with the first half of 2021, in the first half of 2022 trade with goods and services decreased, non-financial corporations increased their deficit, general government deficit lower due to higher growth of revenues than expenditures, households increased consumption and saved less.
Slovenian total economy generated a deficit with the rest of the world
In the first half of 2022, the total economy surplus (net lending) with the rest of the world turned into a deficit (net borrowing) for the first time in ten years. It amounted to EUR 205 million or 0.7% of GDP. In the first half of 2021, the total economy surplus amounted to EUR 1,430 million or 5.8% of GDP.
With further growth of domestic demand (especially household consumption) and tension in the international environment, growth in exports of goods and services (25.2%) was again outpaced by growth in imports of goods and services (36.0%). The growth of trade in services was higher than the growth of trade in goods on the export side and lower on the import side. The surplus in trade with goods and services decreased significantly (by EUR 1,490 million) compared to the first half of 2021 and amounted to EUR 521 million or 1.8% of GDP.
The value of primary incomes, current transfers and capital transfers paid abroad was higher than the value received from abroad (by EUR 758 million or 2.7% of GDP).
Deficit of non-financial corporations up
In the first half of 2022, non-financial corporations operated with a deficit of EUR 954 million or 3.4% of GDP. Compared to the first half of 2021, it increased by EUR 535 million.
The deficit of non-financial corporations was significantly affected by lower revenues from subsidies, increased expenditure on investment and increased expenditure on compensation of employees. Compared to the first half of 2021, revenues from subsidies decreased by EUR 738 million and amounted to EUR 98 million, mainly because government measures for non-financial corporations to mitigate the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 epidemic declined, as the epidemic wanes.
Gross capital formation of non-financial corporations increased by EUR 1,296 million or 39.6%. Within these, both expenditures on gross fixed capital formation and inventories increased significantly, however, the latter more than the former. Therefore, non-financial corporations' investment rate (share of gross fixed capital formation in gross value added) increased only by 0.1 p.p. to 21.9%.
Compensation of employees (salaries and social security contributions) paid by corporations to their employees increased by EUR 914 million or 9.9%, and gross operating surplus (the part of income left at disposal of corporations for dividend payout and (partial) financing of investments) by EUR 887 million or 20.7%.
Surplus of financial corporations lower
In the first half of 2022, financial corporations operated with a surplus of EUR 9 million or 0.03% of GDP. Compared to the first half of 2021, it decreased by EUR 50 million. In the first quarter of 2022, financial corporations were still operating with a surplus of EUR 111 million or 0.8% of GDP, but in the second quarter, they had a deficit of EUR 102 million or 0.7% of GDP.
General government deficit lower due to higher growth of revenues than expenditures
During economic growth in the first half of 2022, general government deficit was significantly lower than in the first half of 2021. It amounted to EUR 927 million or 3.3% of GDP, while in the first half of 2021 it amounted to EUR 1,689 million or 6.8% of GDP.
Compared to the first half of 2021, both general government revenues (by EUR 882 million) and expenditures (by EUR 120 million) increased, but revenues grew more (by 7.9%) than expenditures (by 0.9%).
Taxes on production and imports contributed the most (4.1 p.p.) to revenue growth. With strengthened private consumption, the increase in value added tax stands out among tax revenues on production and imports. Social contributions (1.7 p.p.) also contributed more noticeably to revenue growth, which coincides with favourable trends in the labour market (high employment).
Expenditure for social benefits other than social transfers in kind (3.8 p.p.) and for goods and services or intermediate consumption (1.5 p.p.) contributed the most to expenditure growth. Significant drag for expenditure growth was by lower expenditures on subsidies (−4.5 p.p.), as measures to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic declined, followed by lower expenditure for compensation of employees which includes wages and salaries for the public sector (−2.2 p.p.).
Household saving significantly lower
In the first half of 2022, households’ gross disposable income grew by 11.1%. Compared to the first half of 2021 it was up by 4.2 p.p., mainly due to favourable labour market conditions (high employment rate and wage growth). Gross operating surplus and mixed income (5.2 p.p.) and compensation of employees or income from work (4.6 p.p.) contributed the most to the growth of gross disposable income.
With the gradual easing of restrictive measures to contain the COVID-19 epidemic and with further growth in gross disposable income in the first half of 2022, household’s final consumption expenditure increased significantly (and stood at 27.2%) compared to the first half of 2021. In addition, the impact of base effect should be taken into account, since a year ago the value of consumption expenditure was low.
Consequently, gross households saving rate (share of gross saving in gross disposable income) decreased significantly by 10.6 p.p. compared to the first half of 2021 and was 16.0%. In the first half of 2022, propensity of households to save was therefore lower than before the outbreak of the epidemic in the first half of 2019.
The household investment rate (share of gross fixed capital formation in gross disposable income) was 7.1%, 1.6 p. p. higher than in the first half of 2021.
Tables with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.
Account of Slovenia with the Rest of the World, current prices, Slovenia
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Main aggregates of national accounts by institutional sectors, current prices, Slovenia
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All the data are stated in nominal values and are not seasonally adjusted.