Disposable income among households in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) accelerated in the second quarter of the year and increased by an average of 0.4% year-on-year, compared to 0.1% between January and March. The improvement reflects the “strong growth” experienced by many of the countries that make up the group, the organization said in a brief note published Monday. In Spain, however, the solid growth in GDP did not crystallize with the same momentum in family accounts: the disposable income of resident families increased by less than 0.2% in the second quarter, slowing down compared to the increase of more than half a point recorded in the first.
The picture changes if we analyze the evolution of GDP per capita, for which updated data for the second quarter were also published on Monday. In this case, Spain’s performance is not only in line with the OECD, but is slightly higher: GDP per capita at the national level increased by 0.53% between April and June, while the OECD average did so by 0.5%, albeit with great heterogeneity.
The OECD groups together 38 of the most advanced economies in the world, with very different wage, production and tax structures. Of the 19 countries for which data on household disposable income is available for the second quarter, 12 recorded growth and 7 slowed compared to the first three months of the year, although only 4 recorded negative rates (Australia, Chile, Denmark and the Netherlands).
Poland, at the height of the economic boom, is the state in which the real income of families has increased the most (3.1%), “driven by low inflation, as well as greater social benefits and net income from property”, underlines the organization – the GDP per capita increased by 0.9%. The largest decreases were observed in Chile (-0.6%) and the Netherlands (-0.6%), in the first case due to the increase in inflation and in the second due to the decrease in the income of self-employed workers and the increase in taxes.
The organisation’s statistics are published at a time when Spain is making strong progress and is establishing itself for the second consecutive year as the large developed economy that will grow the most, close to 3% according to all forecasts, despite the uncertainty generated by the trade war and geopolitical tensions. Public perception, however, is not so positive and there is more than one factor that explains the discomfort. These include accumulated inflation since 2021, which is above 20% and higher than wage growth, a real estate market at record levels, whereby more and more income must be allocated to housing, and growth partly due to population growth, which implies the distribution of income among a larger part of the population.
Despite the obstacles, real family income has recovered ground in recent years and stands above 2007 levels (+9.3% in the second quarter of 2025).
Price moderation
In its publication, the OECD focuses on the economies that make up the G7, the group of the most prosperous countries in the world, of which Spain is not part. The disposable income of families had a positive evolution in the second quarter of the year in the majority of them, also due to the effect of the moderation of prices, since the average inflation between July and September was lower than that recorded in the same period last year.
In Germany, where macroeconomic figures continue to improve, family income increased by 0.3% in the second quarter, partially offsetting the drop of almost half a point recorded in the first. The indicator also improved by three tenths in the United Kingdom, in contrast to the 0.8% decline recorded in the first three months of the year, thanks to the increase in employee wages and the lower tax burden.
The same trend was observed in France, with a rebound in household disposable income of 0.3% in the second quarter, in contrast to the zero (0%) growth recorded between January and March. The United States (from 0.5% to 0.6%) and Canada (from 0.1% to 0.2%) also improved, while Italy lost ground: the disposable income of families grew less in the second quarter (0.3%) than in the first (0.8%), a result that the OECD attributes largely to the decline in employee wages.
