MADRID, 20 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

More than 40% of companies believe that the electricity and gas prices they will pay in 2023 will be higher than in 2022, according to an opinion survey carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) to a sample of business establishments in the national, except for the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

Specifically, 41.2% of the establishments surveyed by Statistics expect the prices they pay for the supply of electricity to rise throughout this year, while 44% expect them to remain the same.

In relation to gas prices, 40.1% believe that they will rise, compared to 39.7% who estimate that they will remain the same.

According to this INE survey, reducing margins and raising prices were the main measures adopted by companies to face the rise in energy prices in 2022.

More than half of the establishments, 53.8%, have an electricity contract in the free market, compared to 27.8% that have it in the regulated one.

For their part, 19.7% have a gas supply contract. Of these, 58.3% have contracted the service in the free market and 21.9% have it in the regulated market.