2023-08-09 16:03:56
The total sales of large companies -deflated and corrected for seasonal variations- rose by 2.5% in June, their best data since the beginning of the year (except for March, when they grew by 7.9% due to the stoppage of transporters of a year ago), according to data published this Wednesday by the Treasury. In May, sales growth had only been 1.1%, so the June data confirms that families continue to consume despite inflation and the rise in rates.
A consumption that is sustained thanks to the good progress of the labor market, with a record rate of affiliates to Social Security of around 21 million people. In addition, salaries have continued to rise in these large companies, with a 4.1% increase in the month of June, according to the report. This rate has remained above 4% throughout the year, although it is true that June is the most moderate rise in 2023.
In the accumulated of the year, wages continue to increase around 5% in line with the increases in the price level of the last two years. This same week the Ministry of Labor revealed that the collective agreements signed in the month of July rose again, with an agreed average increase of 3.34%, the highest since 2008.
And although these wage increases agreed for more than 8.9 million workers are still below the 3.8% registered by average inflation for the first seven months of the year, the Bank of Spain notes that the “strength” of the labor market is the lever that is sustaining household spending levels and allowing activity not to slow down. In his latest economic bulletin, the supervisor pointed out that the increase in permanent contracts “decreases the probability of losing the job that workers receive”, which in turn raises the level of household spending.
Even so, in the whole of the second quarter the growth in sales of large companies was only 1.6%, a figure that has also been greatly affected by the triggered rise in the first due to the transport crisis a year ago. .
By sectors, consumer sales rebounded in June by no less than 5.2%, the best rate of the year by far. Sales of capital (investment) moderated their growth compared to the high rates of previous months but still rose 14%.
Increased business margins
Exports recovered the positive ground, increasing by 3.1% in June thanks to the evolution of sales to the EU, which expanded by 9.4% compared to the decline that those destined to third countries continued to experience (-3, 4%), says the Treasury report. European countries bought more from Spain due to the price competitiveness that our country has due to an inflation rate that is already around 2%, half the eurozone average. On a quarterly basis, exports grew by 0.7% also due to the dynamism of sales to EU countries.
And in the midst of a debate about whether companies have managed to overcome the impact that the increase in costs has had on their accounts, the Government has prepared a Margin Observatory in which it is concluded that most of them have recovered the pre-pandemic figures. A few weeks ago the Ministry of Economy presented this index, but it was yesterday when the Tax Agency published the data referring to the end of the second quarter. It shows that business margins rose three tenths in one year, reaching a result of 12.8% in June, although the energy and transport sectors recorded margins above 25%.
The results have been rising gradually since the last quarter of 2020, when they stood at 10%, according to figures published this Wednesday.
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