In the second quarter, the margin rate was 45.2 percent: the highest number since the National Bank began keeping numbers in 1995. The margin rate is not the same as the profit margin. “But it is an indicator of profitability,” according to the National Bank.
The fact that profitability was historically high in the second quarter indicates that “companies in the industrial sector succeeded in overcoming the price hike in their prices,” according to the National Bank.
Ahlibank’s quarterly sector accounts also show that these companies actually built in the necessary caution in the second quarter. For example, their investment percentage in the second quarter fell to 25.7 percent.
The National Bank also provides figures on households. They saved “significantly” less than in the first quarter. The savings rate fell to 13.7 percent. This is because households have lower disposable income (-1 percent), and because they spend more. Final consumer spending increased 2.7 percent. Those families’ investments – construction and renovation – remained fairly stable in the second quarter.
Finally, the government budget balance improved in the second quarter with a deficit of 4% of GDP. In the first quarter it was 5.1 percent.
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