MADRID, 2 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The level of stocks of merchandise in the commerce sector registered a year-on-year increase of 17.3% in the third quarter, its biggest rise since the beginning of the series, in 2013, according to the conjunctural survey on stocks and inventories (ECSE) published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
This strong growth in the stock of merchandise in commerce coincides in time with the high inflation rates that the Spanish economy has been registering and that may be discouraging household consumption due to the rise in prices.
In fact, already in the first quarter of the year, when inflation reached 9.8%, merchandise inventories in commerce rose 5.4%, thus marking their biggest rise in four years.
With the rise of 17.3% in the third quarter, the highest in the series, this indicator has already chained five quarters of positive rates after having accumulated a negative year coinciding with the worst quarters of the crisis caused by Covid.
All the sectors analyzed in this survey experienced positive annual rates between July and September. The greatest year-on-year rise was recorded by wholesale trade, with an increase of 21.8%, followed by retail trade, which increased its stock of merchandise by 14.4% in relation to the third quarter of last year, and sales and motor vehicle repair, where inventories increased by 5.4%.
SEPTEMBER RECORDS THE HIGHEST MONTHLY GROWTH IN THE SERIES
The INE also provides information on how the level of inventories in trade evolved in each of the months of the third quarter (July, August and September) in interannual rates.
In July 2022, the stock of merchandise in the sector rebounded by 15.3% compared to the same month in 2021, while in August it increased by 17.9% year-on-year and in September, by 18.7%, its highest monthly growth since there are records.
All sectors posted year-on-year increases in the months corresponding to the third quarter, including the sale and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which had been posting annual declines for several quarters now.
Among the year-on-year increases for each month in the third quarter, the most pronounced were recorded by wholesale trade, with year-on-year increases in its stock of 20.2% in July, 22.7% in August and 22.4% in September .
