MADRID, 19 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) - The services sector increased its turnover by 7.7% last February compared to the same month in 2022, moderating the rise registered the previous month by 5.4 points, as reported this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With the advance in February, the services chain two consecutive years of year-on-year increases after a year of falls as a result of the pandemic.

Commerce raised its annual revenue by 6.4% in February, while other services, which include hospitality along with other subsectors, registered a 10.6% increase in sales compared to February 2022.

Within commerce, the greatest year-on-year increase in sales was experienced by the sale and repair of vehicles (18.4%), followed by retail trade (10.9%) and wholesale trade, which increased its turnover by 3% year-on-year in the second month of the year.

In the case of other services, the largest annual increase in sales was registered by the hospitality industry (16.9%), followed by administrative activities (13.8%); professional, scientific and technical activities (13.6%); transportation and storage (7.3%) and information and communications (6.3%).

Within the hotel industry, accommodation services increased their sales by 32.3%, while food and beverage services billed 11.6% more than in February 2022.

By activities, the greatest increases in sales were recorded by travel agencies and tour operators (71.9%) and air transport, which increased by 57.5%.

THE BALEARIC ISLANDS LEAD THE INCREASE IN SALES

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

The greatest advances in sales occurred in the Balearic Islands (20.4%), the Canary Islands (17.8%), Asturias (11.2%), Andalusia (10.1%) and Navarra (9.4%), while that the minors were registered in the Valencian Community (3.1%), Extremadura (4.2%), La Rioja (4.6%) and Galicia (5.4%).

Corrected for the calendar and seasonal effect, the billing of the services sector rose 7.6% in February in relation to the same month of 2022, a rate 4.5 points lower than that of January.

In the first two months of the year, sales of services accumulate an average increase of 10.4% (9.8% in the seasonally adjusted series), highlighting the rises of travel agencies (81.1%) and transport air (62%).

SALES RISE 0.9% IN THE MONTH

In monthly terms (February over January) and in seasonally and calendar-adjusted data, the services sector recorded a monthly rise in its sales of 0.9% in the second month of the year, thus ending two consecutive months of setbacks .

Other services contributed especially to this increase, raising their sales by 2.9%, compared to the moderate upturn experienced by commerce (0.1%).

Within the seasonally adjusted series, the activities that registered the highest monthly increases in their billing were travel agencies and tour operators (7%), activities related to employment (4.8%) and air transport (3.6%). ).

On the opposite side, the activities that cut sales the most compared to the previous month were wholesale trade (-4.7%); food and beverage services (-4.1%) and office administrative activities (-2.8%).

EMPLOYMENT ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH RATE TO 1.9%

For the twenty-third consecutive month, employment in the services sector grew last February, and it did so at an interannual rate of 1.9%, a rate one tenth higher than that of January.

Specifically, within the services sector, employment rose 1.3% year-on-year in commerce and 2.2% in other services.

The biggest rises in employment compared to February 2022 occurred in information and communications (4.8%) and in the hotel and catering industry (3.4%) and only administrative activities cut staff, with a year-on-year decline in employment of 1% .

In monthly terms, employment in the services sector decreased by 0.1% after falling by 0.5% in commerce and increasing by 0.1% in other services.

ONLY MURCIA AND ARAGÓN DESTROYED JOBS IN THE LAST YEAR

The annual rate of employment in the services sector increased compared to February 2022 in 13 autonomous communities, was maintained in Cantabria and the Valencian Community and decreased in Aragón (-0.5%) and Murcia (-0.2%).

The Balearic Islands (5.7%) registered the highest year-on-year increase in employment in services last February, followed by the Canary Islands (4.3%), Madrid (3.2%), Castilla-La Mancha (2%) and Catalonia (1.9%).

The most moderate increases in employment occurred in La Rioja and Navarra, with increases in employment in the services sector of 0.4% and 0.5% year-on-year, respectively.