MADRID, March 23. (EUROPA PRESS) - The services sector increased its turnover by 12.9% last January compared to the same month of 2022, increasing the increase registered the previous month by 1.7 points, as reported by this Thursday the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With the advance of January, the services chain 23 consecutive months of year-on-year increases after a year of falls as a result of the pandemic.

Commerce increased its annual revenue by 12.5% ​​in January, while other services, which include hospitality along with other subsectors, registered a 14% increase in sales compared to January 2022.

Within trade, the greatest year-on-year increase in sales was experienced by the sale and repair of vehicles (21.9%), followed by retail trade (14.3%) and wholesale trade, which increased its turnover by 10.5% year-on-year in the first month of the year.

In the case of other services, the largest annual increase in sales was registered by the hospitality industry (26.8%), followed by administrative activities (17.6%); professional, scientific and technical activities (14.8%); transportation and storage (11.3%) and information and communications (7.6%).

Within the hotel industry, accommodation services increased their sales by 49.3%, while food and beverage services billed 20.1% more than in January 2022.

By activities, the greatest increases in sales were recorded by travel agencies and tour operators (93.5%) and air transport, which increased by 66.5%.

By autonomous communities, all of them increased the billing of their services last January compared to the same month of 2022.

The greatest advances in sales occurred in the Canary Islands (28.3%), the Balearic Islands (25.4%), Galicia (20.9%), Navarra (18%) and Andalusia (17.3%), while the minors were registered in Murcia (3.4%), Extremadura (3.8%), Murcia (9%) and Madrid (9.1%).

Corrected for the calendar and seasonal effect, the billing of the services sector rose by 12.2% in January in relation to the same month of 2022, a rate two points lower than that of December 2022.

SALES DECREASE BY 0.5% IN THE MONTH

In monthly terms (January 2023 compared to December 2022) and in seasonally and calendar-adjusted data, the services sector registered a monthly decrease in sales of 0.5% at the start of the year, thus already chaining two consecutive months setbacks after the one experienced in December 2022 (-1.1%).

Other services contributed exclusively to this decrease, which cut their sales by 3.8%, since commerce increased its sales by 0.1% in the first month of 2023.

Within the seasonally adjusted series, the activities that registered the highest monthly increases in their billing were the sale and repair of motor vehicles ( 5%), air transport ( 4.4%) and food and beverage services ( 2, 2%).

On the opposite side, the activities that cut sales the most compared to the previous month were film activities, television programs and music publishing (-19.2%); activities related to employment (-10%) and technical architecture and engineering services (-1.6%).

EMPLOYMENT SLOWS ITS GROWTH RATE TO 1.7%

For the twenty-second consecutive month, employment in the services sector grew last January, and it did so at an interannual rate of 1.7%, a rate three tenths lower than that of December 2022.

Specifically, within the services sector, employment rose 1.1% year-on-year in commerce and 2.2% in other services.

The biggest rises in employment compared to January 2022 occurred in information and communications (5%) and in the hotel and catering industry (3.9%) and only administrative activities cut staff, with a year-on-year drop in employment of 1.2% .

In monthly terms, employment in the services sector decreased by 1.4% after falling by 1.6% in other services and by 1.1% in commerce.

FIVE COMMUNITIES DESTROYED JOBS IN THE LAST YEAR

The annual rate of employment in the services sector increased compared to January 2022 in 12 autonomous communities and decreased in Cantabria (-1.6%), Aragón (-1%), Comunidad Valenciana (-0.2%) and Castilla y León and La Rioja (-0.1% in both cases).

The Balearic Islands (6.3%) registered the highest year-on-year increase in employment in services last January, followed by the Canary Islands (3.7%), Madrid (2.8%), Catalonia (2.2%) and Andalusia (1.9%).

The most moderate increases in employment occurred in Navarra (0.2%) and in Asturias and Murcia, with increases in employment in the service sector of 0.4% year-on-year in both cases.