In the quarterly national accounts, the INE said that in the year ended in the first three months of this year, the household savings rate "stood at 3.8% of disposable income, 0.5 percentage points less than in the previous quarter," and had fallen for three consecutive quarters.

This drop "is the result of a greater variation in final consumption expenditure than in disposable income."

The increase in disposable income of households was mainly due to a 0.9% increase in salaries received, "which more than made up for the reductions in net property income and the balance of social benefits net of contributions."

Considering the figures for the year ended in the first quarter of 2017, household borrowing capacity fell to 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after having reached 0.8% of GDP in the 12 months ended in the previous quarter, which reflects "mainly the reduction of the savings rate," INE said.

The Portuguese economy recorded a financing capacity of 1.5% of GDP to March, 0.1 percentage points more than in the previous quarter.

By sector, corporate borrowing capacity stood at 0.6% of GDP, 0.2 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter, and that of financial corporations stabilised at 2.2% of GDP.