MADRID, 21 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The services sector increased its turnover by 23.2% in August compared to the same month of 2021, expanding the rise registered the previous month by five points, as reported this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With the advance of August, services chain 18 consecutive months of year-on-year increases after a year of falls as a result of the pandemic.

Within services, the greatest advances in sales were recorded by administrative activities and auxiliary services (36.1%), wholesale trade (29.1%), and hospitality (accommodation services and food and beverage services) , which increased its turnover by 24.4% year-on-year.

Specifically, accommodation services increased their sales by 34.4%, while food and beverage services invoiced 17.7% more than in August 2021.

By activities, the biggest increases in sales were recorded by travel agencies and tour operators, which doubled them (103.3%), and air transport, which increased by 89.1%.

In monthly terms and in data adjusted for seasonality and calendar, the services sector recorded a monthly increase in its sales of 2% in August after two months of setbacks.

For the seventeenth consecutive month and after more than a year of falls, employment in the services sector grew in August, and did so at an interannual rate of 3.6%, a rate five tenths lower than that of July.

The Balearic Islands was the community that most increased job creation in the services sector last August, with an interannual increase of 10.1%, and also the region that increased sales the most, 41.2% in interannual rate.