Press release 16/11/2018

SERVICE SECTOR INDEX. III/2018

In the third quarter of 2018 Auxiliary Services and the Sale & Repair of Vehicles led the growth in market services in the Basque Country

Over the year to date, Trade sales, including the Sale and Repair of Vehicles, rose by 1.8% and Other Services grew by 2.3%

Within market services, the sectors of Administrative Activities and Auxiliary Services (4.7%) and Sale and Repair of Motor Vehicles (4.1%) registered the highest growth rates in sales, in constant terms, in the third quarter of 2018, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data.

At a more disaggregated level, the Trade sector, which comprises Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade and the Sale & Repair of Vehicles, saw sales rise by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2018 in constant terms, whereas the sectors that come under Other Services saw an increase in sales of 2.0%, and this is all in relation to the same quarter of the previous year.

Over the first nine months of the year as a whole, once the price effect had been disregarded, the Trade sector registered an increase of 1.8%, a sector in which Sale & Repair of Vehicles saw growth of 6.8%, whilst Other Services as a whole reached 2.3%, led by Administrative Activities & Auxiliary Services, with an accumulative growth of 4.6% so far this year.

Compared with the previous quarter, the Trade sector saw a drop of 0.4%, but the Other Services sector grew by 0.3%, at constant prices and once any seasonal effects had been eliminated.

Within Trade, the year-on-year evolution was positive in the Sale & Repair of Motor Vehicles sector, which was up 4.1% and in Trade, there was an increase of 0.7%; however, sales in the Trade sector fell by 0.9%.

In the Other Services sector, the sales index (in constant terms) rose by 4.7% for the branch of Administrative Activities & Auxiliary Services, 3.4% for the branch of Transport & Storage, 2.5% for the branch of Hotel Management & Catering and 0.6% for the branch of Scientific and Technical Professional Activities. On the other hand, the Information & Communications branch registered a fall of 1.9%.

By province, the Trade sector registered an upward trend in real terms in Álava and Gipuzkoa, which saw increases of 3.2% and 1.0%, respectively. In Bizkaia, however, there was a drop of 0.6%. For Other Services as a whole, the evolution of the third quarter in real terms was positive in all three provinces, with growth of 4.5% for Gipuzkoa, 2.7% for Álava and 0.5% for Bizkaia. This is all in relation to the second quarter of 2017 once the price effect had been discounted.

The index of employed people in the Basque Country rose on a year-on-year basis for both indexes, with a 1.0% rise in the Trade sector and a 2.7% increase in the index for Other Services. Compared to the second quarter of 2018, the index for Trade did not undergo any change (0.0%) and the index for Other Services rose by 0.7%, all in deseasonalised terms.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62