Recession is causing Spaniards to squirrel away more of their money, with the household savings rate in the third quarter of 2009 up 4.6 percent compared to a year earlier, the government reported Monday.
The savings rate for households and non-profit institutions was 14.1 percent, the National Statistics Institute said.
Spain has been in technical recession since late 2008 following the collapse of a credit-fueled construction boom and the unemployment rate now stands at an EU-high of 17.9 percent.
In a separate report, car sales for 2009 were down nearly 18 percent compared to a year earlier and dropped to the lowest level since 1995, an association of manufacturers and a dealership grouping said.
Sales rose in the final four months of the year, due in large part to a government program offering rebates for people who trade in older cars and buy a new one. But this was not enough to prevent overall negative numbers for the year, the two associations said.
Total automobile sales in 2009 were 952,772, they said.
