The business margins of most economic sectors are already in “close levels” to those who registered before the pandemicbut with some “very significant differences”. In particular, those of the food chain remain below their level prior to the start of the inflationary spiral at the beginning of 2021, while those of the energy companies They are shot up to levels much higher than those of then. Two months after the vice president Nadia Calvino announced its creation, these are the main conclusions of the first report prepared by the Observatory of Business Marginscreated at the initiative of the Ministry of Economy with the collaboration of the Tax agency and the Bank of Spainand with the opposition of the CEOE.
The study measures margins according to the gross economic result of exploitation (similar to ebitda) on the sales (or billing). I mean, not about the benefits final, in which other factors affect such as taxes or extraordinary results. The document highlights that the margins of the food chain are they sank 25% between mid-2021 and the end of 2022 (around 40% in the case of the agri-food industry). On the one hand, there was a sharp rise in the price of raw materials (such as gas or the fertilizers). And to this were added the “difficulties for move fully the rise in costs to the final prices of food”.
He price increase sales in the food chain, thus, it was “more moderate that the increase in costs” of the companies, since these they did not transfer “entirely” the cost of energy to its customers. The lower price of raw materials between January and March, for its part, has allowed margins to drop recovering“although they still remain at levels lower than its historical average“. Thus, they haunt the 8%when before the inflationary shock they were around the 10%. In the particular case of wholesale and retail trade food, are at “levels similar to their historical average” (around 10% and 5%, respectively), but below the beginning of 2021.
fired energy
The evolution of companies energetic It has been radically different. In the last two years, says the report, the increase in consumption due to the “intense recovery” of the economy coincided with the effect of sanctions on Russia on supply and international wholesale energy prices. This caused the margins in the sector of production and distribution of fuels they would shoot from 2% from the end of 2020 to approach at 17% at the beginning of 2023. The study, yes, comes to justify it: “The evolution of the prices of Spanish products does not depend on the variation in their costs, but on the international quoted pricesso its margin is volatile and can wax and wane with rapidity and intensity.
In the sector of electricity and gas supply a “similar” evolution has been recorded. Thus, its margins have gone from slightly exceeding the 10% at the beginning of the inflationary spiral to reach 25% at the beginning of this year. The document, yes, highlights that there is a “high heterogeneity.” Thus, it emphasizes that the producers nuclear and renewable have not been affected by the increase in international energy costs, but they have “benefited” the increase in their sales prices. On the contrary, some marketers non-producers were affected “for a certain period of time” by the higher price of electricity they had to buy, a rise that they could not “fully transfer” to their clients for the contracts they had signed.
Margin moderation
He Secretary of State for the EconomyGonzalo García Andrés, has defended that these data “justify” the tax to energy companies approved by the Government. The same, he has assured, is applicable to the banking sector due to the rise in interest rates (banking is not included in the report due to methodological problems, but there are other sources of information). “In the rest of the sectors there is nothing so anomalous“, he argued.
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It has also urged all companies to “contribute moderation” from its margins to which the inflation in Spain continues to be one of the lowest in the euro zone, as well as to the fact that wages can win purchasing power. “It would have been materialized practically all the translation of the cost increases that we saw during 2021 and 2022 at sales prices. Now We have to see, over the next few quarters, how the potential begins to move cheapening of energy that we have seen in recent quarters”, sources from the Observatory have abounded.
According to data from the Bank of Spain, the margins of the set of companies (not including the self-employed) stood at 9.6% in the first quarter, 2.4 points above a year earlier but one point below the pre-pandemic level. In the case of trade and hospitalityreached 4.8%, compared to 5.9% in the first quarter of 2022 and 5.5% at the end of 2019. In the sector energetic, stood at 16.4%, compared to 6.3% a year earlier and 15.2% prior to the pandemic. In the industry, at 5.9%, compared to 7.5% and 5.6%, respectively. And in the sector of information and communicationsreached 20.8%, compared to 18% a year earlier and 23.9% in 2019.