Press release 17/05/2019

SERVICE SECTOR INDEX. I/2019

Sales were up 3.1%in the Trade Sector of the Basque Country and 0.3% in Other Services in the first quarter of 2019

The Wholesale Trade and Transport & Storage Subsectors showed the highest growth

The Trade sector, which comprises Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade and the Sale & Repair of Vehicles, saw sales increase by 3.1% in the first quarter of 2019 in constant terms, whereas the sectors that come under Other Services saw an increase of 0.3%, all in relation to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data.

Compared to the previous quarter, both the Trade and Other Services sectors saw rises of 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively, at constant prices and once any seasonal effects had been eliminated.

Within Trade, the year-on-year performance was positive for Wholesale Trade sales, with an increase of 4.8%, as were Retail Trade sales, up 2.0%; however, the Sale & Repair of Motor Vehicles fell by 1.8%.

In the Other Services sector, the Sales Index of the Transport & Storage sector rose by 3.4%, and for Scientific and Technical Professional Activities it was up 0.8%, whereas the Sales Index was down in the sectors of Administrative Activities & Auxiliary Services (-3.9%), Information & Communications (-3.3%) and Hotel Management & Catering (-0.2%).

By province, in Álava sales in Trade were up 5.5% and sales in Other Services rose by 0.6%; in Bizkaia sales in Trade increased by 2.8% and sales in Other Services were down 0.1%; in Gipuzkoa sales in Trade grew by 2.4% and sales in Other Services by 1.0%. This is all compared to the first quarter of 2018 and 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 1.6% rise in the Trade sector and a 0.4% increase in the index for Other Services. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, the index was up 0.2% in the Trade sector and fell by 0.2% in Other Services, all in deseasonalised terms.

Methodological note: For the first quarter of 2019, the base year used as a reference for the Services Index (ICS) was changed. The new ICS base year of reference is 2015. This base change has signified the updating of the representative panel of participant companies of the Services sector in the Basque Country as well as the weighting structure for the various levels of disaggregation. From this first quarter of 2019 the series corrected for calendar effects and the series adjusted for seasonal effects since the 2015 base year are obtained using the software JDemetra+ 2.2.1, following the Eurostat recommendations for carrying out seasonal and calendar adjustments in the official statistics of the European Union.

For further information:

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