With their spending power declining, Italians can afford fewer and fewer purchases. This is said by Istat, which released data from the "National Accounts by Institutional Sector" in 2022. According to the Institute of Statistics, last year people's disposable income increased by 5.5 percent (more than 64.8 billion euros more), but the purchasing power of households decreased by 1.6 percent. Weighing on households' pockets was inflation and in particular the increase in the so-called "shopping cart", still rising by 8.3 percent as of September this year, after surpassing percentages of 11 percent in 2022. Given the price increases, people have been spending more and more (final consumption cost 12.6 percent more than in 2021), while the propensity to save has fallen by 5.8 percent (from 13.8 percent in 2021 to 8 percent in 2022). Household income from labor or capital increased last year, although not enough to compensate for generalized price increases. The growth, taking into account also non-directly disposable income, was 6.1 percent (by 77.8 billion euros), due to the rise in income from employment (+7 percent), also seen at the increase in employment, income from entrepreneurial activity (+4.9 percent), income from the use of owned housing (+3.9 percent) and income from financial capital (+8.0 percent). In all this, the tax bill also grew. Taxes for the year increased by 4.4 billion euros up 1.9% from 2021.
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