The economic difficulties that are already being felt intensely in several countries in the euro zone have begun to appear in Spanish business activity during the third quarter of the year, mainly due to the rise in energy costs, which threatens to cause new price increases. .
According to the latest survey by the Bank of Spain on company activity, in the third quarter there was a decrease in turnover, especially marked in industry and agriculture. If the first already has five consecutive quarters of decline, the second accumulates six.
The survey, which is sent to some 15,000 companies in Spain, places the percentage of companies whose sales increased in the quarter that is about to end at 22.4%, seven points less than between April and June. On the other hand, those who perceive decreases in their turnover are already 28.7%, six points more than three months ago.
It is not the only problem detected by the survey, which shows that the interest rate increases of the European Central Bank (ECB) have not been sufficient to contain inflation that does not come from both demand and supply and, specifically, the rise in energy prices.
“There are signs of a pause in the disinflationary process in the third quarter, both in production costs and in sales prices,” say the authors of the report that accompanies the survey, Alejandro Fernández Cerezo and Mario Izquierdo. One-year expectations, they warn, point to a slight rebound in inflationary pressures.
“Business activity has been affected by the rise in energy costs and the growing incidence of labor availability problems,” the authors say. This second aspect, they point out, has caused many companies to be forced to reduce their hiring and raise salaries.
The companies that said they had increased the level of employment in the quarter were 18.3%, three points less than in the previous quarter. Furthermore, when asked about the fourth quarter, they allude to an additional slowdown in the growth of employment.
It is more difficult for companies to recognize that they have increased prices, but they do anticipate that they will predictably do so. “The results of the survey show that the process of reducing inflationary pressures that began at the end of last year would have been interrupted in the third quarter of the year,” warns the Bank of Spain.
The percentage of companies that say they have detected an additional increase in their costs is 58.4%, almost ten points more than in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, 26.4% say they have raised prices in the quarter, compared to 25.5% three months earlier, while 64.9% expect their costs to be higher than current ones next year, 10.5 points more than in the previous survey.
Companies are also raising their labor costs, partly due to wage increases, while they say they are experiencing greater problems finding labor. 70.8% of them now expect growth in labor costs, six points more than three months ago, while 39% say they have difficulties finding labor, five points more than three months ago.
