Can the financial skills of Spaniards be measured? Is there a quick and efficient method to do it? The Bank of Spain believes so, that it consists of just three questions that look like a school problem whose correct answers are not available to anyone, in view of the results. Only 19% of the population is able to pass the test without errors.
These three questions are the basis of the financial skills exam that the Bank of Spain carries out among the population every five years. In the latest edition, presented this Tuesday, 21,000 people have been surveyed between November 2, 2021 and July 23, 2022. "I don't know if the journalists present here would be able to respond well to all three," joked the General Director of Economy and Statistics of the Bank of Spain, Ángel Gavilán, when presenting the results.
On a positive note, 53% of the answers were correct, compared to 51% five years ago, which represents a "statistically significant" improvement. The bad thing is that this percentage places Spain below the OECD measure of 57%, collected five years ago - there will be no updated international results until December.
And what are those three questions on which the work of the Bank of Spain is based? A little further down you can read the correct answers.
To the first question, 65% answered correctly, that is, that they could buy less, compared to 58% five years ago. To the second question, that of interest rates, 46% opt for more than 110 euros, which is correct, compared to 41% five years ago. And as for the third, 52% say it is true, compared to 49% five years earlier.
"The correct response rate is quite poor," laments Gavilán. The director of the Bank of Spain recognizes that, if something is learned, it is from experience, judging by the improvement in the response rate in recent years for the first question, the one related to inflation, especially pressing after the pandemic. .
A positive element of the results is that young people and the elderly have increased their financial skills to the greatest extent. 17% of both groups were able to answer all three questions, compared to 13% five years ago. It is a progression that contrasts with what happened with the other age groups, which move between 19% and 21% correct, but with a downward trend.
The gender gap between men and women remains. If among the first the percentage of correct answers was 58%, in the second it was 10 points lower. There are also more obvious results, such as that financial competence correlates with educational level. The percentage of correct answers goes from 43% in lower levels to 55% in high school and 64% in university education.
By autonomous community, Riojans surpass Madrid and Catalans in percentage of correct answers. 59% of the answers in La Rioja were correct, ahead of 58% in Madrid and Aragón, and 54% in Catalonia, which has a percentage somewhat lower than the 55% in Valencia and Navarra.
The survey also asks about the ownership of savings products. From the results, what young people say stands out: 12% of them say they own cryptocurrencies, compared to 5% of the population as a whole. "These products have a lower level of regulation and are very risky, but they are reaching the population and deserve to be taken into account," says Gavilán. 84% of those surveyed have already heard of them.
The Bank of Spain has also asked about the difficulties of those surveyed and how to deal with them. 25% have spent more money in the last year than they have earned, three points less than five years ago. Of those who find themselves in this situation, 55% have solved it by resorting to savings, while 35% asked for money from friends, family or employers.
Catalunya and Murcia are the two autonomous communities with the highest percentage of respondents whose expenses exceeded income in the last year, with 30%, ahead of Madrid's 24%. In Galicia, Asturias and Euskadi these percentages do not reach 17%.
If they lost their main source of income, 57% of households say they would be able to last six months without having to borrow money or move house, five points more than five years ago. In Catalonia, the percentage is 52%, compared to 69% in La Rioja, Euskadi and Navarra.
"We have improved but there is room for improvement. It is true that with the economic shocks we are learning, but we have been insisting that we have to reinforce spending on education, so that the education received at school and at the university is more in line to the needs of society," is Gavilán's recipe for improving financial skills.
