MADRID, 4 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The activity of the private sector in Spain registered a slight improvement during the month of September, which allowed the composite purchasing managers index (PMI) to reach the level of 50.1 points, compared to 48.6 the previous month and just one tenth above the stagnation threshold, according to data from S
“The latest composite PMI figures provide Spain with good arguments to support its reputation of being one of the most resilient economies in the euro zone during these unstable times,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, for whom, While “this does not mean that Spain is experiencing a new boom,” it does indicate that Spain is positioning itself well relative to its euro zone counterparts.
“Our real-time estimation model, which takes into account the latest PMI figures and other statistics, forecasts growth of 0.1% in the third quarter”, while for the whole of 2023 GDP should grow by 2 %.
The slight improvement in Spain’s private sector activity index in September was mainly due to the rebound observed in the services sector, whose PMI stood at 50.5 points, compared to 49.3 the previous month.
For its part, the manufacturing PMI index stood at 47.7 points, compared to 46.5 in August, which, despite indicating a less intense contraction in industrial activity, represented the sixth consecutive month of readings. negative.
In September, the services sector gave some hope, De la Rubia said, referring to the small rebound in activity and the solid increase in hiring, while new orders are stagnating, although at a fairly high level.
On the other hand, the economist pointed out that the price readings “tell a somewhat ambiguous story,” since both the prices of inputs and the prices charged to customers increased at a higher rate than in the previous month.
“Companies in the service sector were able to pass on to customers at least part of the increases in salaries, energy, etc. However, the results also suggest that the Spanish Government’s effort to control inflation through various price regulations (so far quite successfully) could be going through a bad patch,” he added.
