Sales of the service sector fell 0.7% in June after more than two years of rises

MADRID, Aug. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) - The services sector cut its billing by 0.7% last June compared to the same month in 2022, ending 27 months of year-on-year increases in billing, as reported this Thursday the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The setback registered in June was a consequence of the drop in trade sales, which billed 2.9% less than in the same month of 2022, due to the fact that wholesale trade cut its sales by 8.9% year-on-year. In contrast, the sale and repair of vehicles and motorcycles had a turnover of 13.7% more than in June 2022, and retail trade, 6.6% more.

For their part, other services increased their sales by 3.8% year-on-year in June, driven by the hospitality industry (9.8%), administrative activities (9.3%), professional activities (6.1%) and information and communications, which billed 5.4% more. On the other hand, transportation and storage sales fell by 4.6%.

Within the hotel industry, accommodation services increased their sales by 12.8%, while food and beverage services billed 8.2% more than in June 2022.

By activity, the greatest year-on-year increases in sales were recorded by travel agencies and tour operators (21.8%) and information services, which increased by 18.5%.

On the other hand, the greatest decreases corresponded to other specialized wholesale trade (-28.9%) and to film activities, television programs and music publishing (-27.1%).

THE BALEARIC ISLANDS LEAD THE INCREASE IN SALES

By autonomous communities, eleven of them increased the billing of their services last June compared to the same month in 2022 and six cut it, especially Navarra (-6.8%), Madrid (-5.4%) and Castilla y Leon (-2%).

For their part, the greatest advances in sales occurred in the Balearic Islands (10.5%), Extremadura (4.7%), La Rioja (4.5%) and the Canary Islands (3.5%), while the smallest they were registered in the Basque Country (0.5%), and in Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha, both with year-on-year increases of 0.8%.

Corrected for the calendar and seasonal effect, the billing of the services sector fell by 0.9% in June in relation to the same month of 2022, a rate 1.6 points lower than that of May.

In the first six months of the year, sales of services accumulated an average increase of 4.8% (4.9% in the seasonally adjusted series), highlighting the increases in travel agencies (42.9%) and transport air (34.8%).

SALES DECREASE BY 1.1% IN THE MONTH

In monthly terms (June over May) and in seasonally and calendar-adjusted data, the services sector registered a monthly decrease in sales of 1.1% in the sixth month of the year, its biggest monthly decline since December 2022.

Commerce exclusively contributed to this decrease, which reduced its sales by 1.7%, compared to the stagnation experienced by other services despite the strong rebound in the hotel industry, whose sales in the month at a seasonally adjusted rate increased by 1.5% due to the start of the summer tourist season.

Within the seasonally adjusted series, the activities that registered the greatest monthly increases in their billing were information services (17.8%); film activities, television programs and music publishing (15.8%), and food and beverage services (3.2%).

On the opposite side, the activities that cut sales the most compared to the previous month were storage and activities related to transportation (-7%); travel agencies (-6.4%) and technical architecture and engineering services (-2.8%).

EMPLOYMENT ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH RATE UP TO 2%

For the twenty-seventh consecutive month, employment in the services sector grew last June, and it did so at an interannual rate of 2%, a rate one tenth higher than that of May.

Specifically, within the services sector, employment rose 2% year-on-year in commerce and 1.9% in other services.

The greatest rises in employment compared to June 2022 occurred in information and communications (4.4%), transport and storage (3.4%) and professional activities (2.7%) and only administrative activities cut staff, with a year-on-year drop in employment of 0.1%.

In monthly terms, employment in the services sector increased by 1.1% after increasing by 1.1% in commerce and increasing by 1.2% in other services.

ALL COMMUNITIES EARN WORKERS

The annual rate of employment in the services sector increased compared to June 2022 in all the autonomous communities.

The Balearic Islands, with an increase of 5.9%, recorded the highest year-on-year increase in employment in services last June, followed by Murcia (3.4%), Madrid (2.8%) and the Canary Islands (2. 6%).

The most moderate increases in employment occurred in Cantabria (0.5%), Comunidad Valenciana (0.6%) and Aragón (0.7%).