Within the scope of national accounting, wealth income includes households’ income from property and real estate. Households’ property income corresponds to interest received on their deposits net of that paid on their loans, and also dividends and income from other investments (mainly life insurance). Real estate income includes real rents (for household landlords) or imputed rents (for owner-occupiers) received by individual homeowners, from which charges and property taxes are deducted. The national accounts record as interest paid or received by households any “pure” interest, calculated at the banks’ refinancing rate, then enters the difference between this pure interest and the interest actually paid or received by households as a payment to the bank for a financial intermediation service indirectly measured (FISIM).

In 2023, wealth income in current euros is expected to increase by +15.8% and should contribute 3.1 points to growth of 7.4% in household gross disposable income (GDI). However, part of the growth in wealth income is due to the adjustment for FISIM. Without FISIM, wealth income is expected to increase by +9.0%, after +6.5% in 2022. This acceleration would appear to be due to the increase in net interest actually received, which should contribute +2.9 points in 2023 after +1.5 points in 2022. Growth in net interest income excluding FISIM is more pronounced in France than among our European neighbours, as savings, which are mainly regulated, have partially followed inflation, while outstanding property loans are largely set at fixed rates, and were contracted at a time when interest rates were low. Dividends and other investment income are expected to remain very dynamic, contributing +1.9 and +2.6 points respectively to growth in wealth income in 2023. Finally, the contribution of the real estate income of individual homeowners is expected to be more moderate in 2023 (+1.5 points), with weak annual growth (+2.2%) which can be explained by the capping of rent increases since 2022. Growth in property income in 2023 remains surrounded by forecasting uncertainty, however, especially for payments of other investment income.

In nominal terms and excluding FISIM, wealth income should contribute 1.7 points to the 6% increase in household GDI in 2023, with the main contribution still that of earned income (up to 3.8 points). In real terms, however, wealth income excluding the FISIM effect, is expected to be the main contributor to growth in the purchasing power of household GDI excluding FISIM in 2023, at around +0.8 points, while earned income should contribute +0.2 points...