The year-on-year increase in new home construction costs slowed to 9.1% in February, 2.0 percentage points less than in January (11.1%), according to an estimate by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) that released this Monday.
In a statement, INE adds that the price of materials and labor costs also slowed, as they showed year-on-year changes of 9.3% in February, up from 10.2% in January, and 8.8%, respectively. 12.2% in January.
In one chain, the rate of change in construction costs was zero in February, with material prices rising 0.1% compared to January and labor costs remaining flat.
Export and import growth slows to 7.0% and 6.7% respectively in February
Exports and imports of goods rose by 7.0% and 6.7%, respectively, year on year in February, slowing compared to January, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) announced.
“In February 2023, exports and imports of goods registered nominal year-on-year changes of 7.0% and 6.7%, respectively (13.8% and 10.8%, in the same order, in January 2023)”, refers the INE in international trade statistics.
The statistical office points out that the variations in February may have been influenced by the length of the month analyzed, which had “one working day less than the same month of 2022 and three working days less than the previous month”.
Excluding the ‘fuels and lubricants’ category, there were increases of 10.0% in exports and 14.3% in imports, compared to 13.7% and 11.4% respectively in January 2023).
The INE highlights that “unit value indices (prices) registered variations of 7.1% in exports and 4.4% in imports (8.1% and 7.0% respectively in January 2023)”.
Excluding oil products, changes were 7.4% in exports and 4.6% in imports, a slowdown from 8.1% and 5.9% respectively in the previous month.
The trade deficit worsened by EUR 129 million compared to the same month of 2022 and stood at EUR 2,367 million. Excluding oil products, the value of the deficit grew by 424 million compared to February 2022 to 1,782 million euros.
Taking into account the quarter ended in February, the growth of exports and imports slowed “again”, with fluctuations of 10.0% and 9.0% year-on-year, respectively. In the three months ending January this year, export growth was 13.0% and imports 12.7%, INE added.
In February 2023, taking into account the main partner countries in 2022, INE highlights the increase in transactions with Spain, with 6.4% more exports, “mainly ‘Machinery and other capital goods'”, and 8.3% for imports, “mainly ‘Transport Equipment and Foodstuffs'”.
Industry revenue growth slows to 4.3% in February
Industry revenue recorded a year-over-year increase of 4.3% in February, up from 12.6% growth the previous month, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) announced.
In homologous and nominal terms, the industrial turnover index “indicated a 4.3% increase in February, translating to a slowdown of 8.3 percentage points (pp) compared to January,” according to INE.
Excluding the energy group, manufacturing revenue rose 7.4%, compared to a 13.6% increase in the previous month.
According to INE, the 4.3% year-over-year increase in manufacturing sales in February was due to both the domestic market and the foreign market, whose indices were 1.2% and 8.4% respectively , up from 12.6% growth in the previous month in both indices.
The domestic market sales index slowed by 11.4 percentage points (pp), representing an increase of 1.2%, and contributed 0.7 pp (7.3 pp in January) to the overall index growth .
Sales to the external market slowed by 4.2 percentage points (pp) to 8.4% in February, contributing 3.6 percentage points (pp), from 5.3 percentage points in the previous month. The monthly turnover index in the industry was -2.9% in February this year, while it registered a growth of 4.8% in the same month of last year.
However, INE points out that February this year had three fewer working days than the previous month (one working day less in February 2022).
In turn, the indices for employment, wages and hours worked showed year-on-year changes of +1.4%, +8.7% and -0.8% respectively, compared to +1.6%, +12% and +6.9% in January, in the same order.
Source: DN
