Details about the Spain retail trade decrease trend here.
Spain, at the tail of the European Union in retail trade: its sales are 3% lower than those of 2019.
Although Spain has managed to recover pre-pandemic levels in some sectors, such as tourism, there are others in which this recovery is still very slow. One of them is that of retail trade. This is one of the key indicators for the economy of a country, as it reflects the spending of families.
According to El Confidencial, in the month of June, household consumption fell by 0.3% in Spain, a much milder drop than the 1.2% lost by the eurozone as a whole. However, this is a problem for the country, since it has been in this situation since the pandemic broke out. In June, these sales were 3.1% lower than during the same period of 2019.
Spain retail trade decrease
This data reflects that Spain is the only country in the European Union that has not managed to recover pre-pandemic levels, which puts it at the tail.
However, that does not mean that Spanish families spend less than they did in 2019. In fact, they spend 14% more. The situation we are going through, marked by inflation, has caused families to have cut spending.
Regarding the food trade, the evolution of Spain and that of the European Union is very similar. This is because these are basic necessities, and, therefore, families cannot reduce this expense.
Specifically, deflated sales of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Spain is 1.6% lower than in 2019, while in the eurozone as a whole the advance is only 0.2%.
Spain retail trade decrease details
However, the difference is in those goods that are not of first necessity. This is where families are cutting back on their spending. In Spain, these sales are 6.7% lower than those registered before the pandemic, while in the eurozone they have grown by 6.5%.
The Spanish economy is very different from that of other European countries. Here, covid-19 hit harder, which made shops closed or with restrictions much longer. In addition, it has a larger underground economy than in any other country, which also hinders the recovery.
All these factors make it possible to predict that we will not have the GDP from before the pandemic again until 2024. In some sectors, it is gradually returning to the levels of before the pandemic. An example is the 7.5 million foreign tourists who visited the country in July and that is close to the more than 8 that we had in the same period of 2019.
Spain retail trade decrease data
However, there is still a lot to be done to get out of this situation and not be the European country that grows the least. For this, a fundamental factor is to recover retail trade, since this will mean that families have been able to recover part of the purchasing power they lost with the arrival of covid-19.
- The retail trade in Spain continues its fall trail. In June, these sales were 3.1% lower than during the same period of 2019.
- Families are reducing their spending on non-necessities. Specifically, these sales are 6.7% lower than those registered before the pandemic.
