MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The turnover of companies fell 10.6% in March compared to the same month in 2023, its biggest decline since February 2021, according to the Business Turnover Index (ICNE) published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
With the fall in March, company sales return to negative year-on-year rates after the 0.9% increase they experienced in February and which then put an end to a streak of declines that had already lasted ten months.
The decrease in company turnover in March was a consequence of the lower sales recorded by almost all sectors, especially in the supply of electrical energy, which fell by 40.1% year-on-year.
They were followed by the extractive and manufacturing industries, with a year-on-year decrease in turnover of 12.2%, and commerce, with a drop of 9.6%. In contrast, services increased their sales by 1.6% year-on-year in March.
Corrected for seasonal and calendar effects, company turnover fell by 6.5% in March, increasing by more than four points the drop experienced the previous month. With March, company sales have accumulated twelve consecutive months of year-on-year declines.
Within the corrected series, energy and water supply reduced its sales by 37.7% year-on-year, while commerce did so by 3.3%. In the opposite direction, the billing of services increased by 4.5% and that of industry increased by 0.2%.
MONTHLY FALL IN SALES OF 2.5%
In monthly values (March over February), business turnover fell by 2.5% in the seasonally adjusted series, thus registering its largest monthly contraction since April 2023, when it fell by 3.9%.
The four sectors analyzed in this statistic presented monthly decreases in March. The biggest declines occurred in the supply of electricity, with a monthly drop in billing of 6.5%, and in commerce (-4.1%).