SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Business Confidence Index (ICE) in the Canary Islands has risen by 10.1% in the fourth quarter of the year, nine points above the national average growth, which reflects a clear upturn in the optimism of the Canarian business community regarding the closing of the year, the Canary Islands being the community that leads the growth of the country as a whole.
According to the results of the Business Confidence Indicator, which have been presented at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Chamber of Commerce, this growth is due to greater control of the pandemic and a progressive lifting of sanitary restrictions. However, this new momentum towards the end of the year represents a slowdown compared to the previous quarter, which registered 15.2%.
This means that, although the mood of the island companies improves, coming from such negative data where the economy was practically paralyzed, a phenomenon of progressive stabilization is taking place, accompanied by a return to a situation each time more normal.
The president of the Chamber, Santiago Sesé, explained that this outstanding growth “occurs mainly because we come from very negative data, especially in the tourism or trade sectors, and due to seasonal factors typical of the islands at this time of the year. year, as it is the start of the tourist winter season that is especially hopeful due to the recovery of connectivity in terms similar to the prepandemic period, due to the better expectations of international tourist arrivals, due to the higher accommodation forecasts in our hotel establishments and non-hoteliers, as the reservations point out, and because of the knock-on effects that all this reactivation is going to generate in the economy as a whole “.
However, Santiago Sesé stressed that, in this recovery scenario, some uncertainties also persist: “On the one hand, we are concerned about a possible situation of an upturn in infections in countries that send tourists to the Canary Islands, mainly the United Kingdom, and also in Spain and more specifically in the Canary Islands, so we insist once again on the public responsibility to maintain health recommendations to avoid new restrictions on mobility and business activity. The virus is still there and we cannot forget it. “
On the other hand, he also warned about “the lack of supplies and the logistical problems that are being experienced at the international level reduce the economy’s ability to recover. For the first time, the supply is not having the capacity to correspond to the demand.”
The operating costs of companies, meanwhile, are also a concern: “The rise in energy and fuels is putting the viability of some companies at risk, in addition to reducing consumption capacity at a time when we need to stimulate internal and external demand “.
In response to these situations, Santiago Sesé considers it necessary “to take urgent measures in the monetary, budgetary and fiscal spheres that mitigate, once again, the recovery of companies and employment in the islands, since it will be difficult for many of them to overcome a new lurch to its activity “.
The president of the Chamber also pointed out that the economic policy decisions to be adopted, especially in labor matters, “must be extremely prudent so as not to damage the recovery of the economy, as it is not yet consolidated, as pointed out by the president of the Chamber of Spain, José Luis Bonet, last week “.
IMPROVEMENT IN ALL SECTORS.
Overall, all sectors have experienced an improvement in their Confidence Index towards the end of the year, although those that began to reactivate earlier do so more moderately in favor of economic stabilization.
Thus, Transport and hospitality is the sector that leads the advance of confidence with an increase of 25.3%. Facing autumn-winter, they continue to maintain favorable but prudent expectations: unfavorable responses are reduced by 2% and stability increases with a response rate of 36%.
In second place, Commerce improves its Confidence Index (22.5%), keeping in mind the Christmas campaign and a better pandemic situation, with a decrease in the unfavorable responses registered.
The Other services sector experienced an increase in confidence of 9.1%, and also registered a decrease in unfavorable responses, although to a lesser extent than in the rest of the service companies.
The industry positions its Confidence Index at 5.2% and begins to stabilize its activity after the impulses registered in previous months. During the summer months, 51% of companies stated that they had maintained their activity, a figure that in winter increases to 57% in favor of stability.
For its part, construction is the sector with the least progress in business confidence (1.2%), since, like industry, it experienced this increase in previous months.
INCREASE CONFIDENCE EXCEPT LA PALMA
If the data is analyzed by islands, an abrupt decline in business expectations (28% less) on La Palma as a result of the volcano eruption is striking, data that will foreseeably continue to be negative as long as the reconstruction of the island lasts once end the eruption.
The rest of the islands maintain the same trend as in the previous quarter, with positive variations in business expectations in El Hierro and Lanzarote, and negative (although to a lesser extent) in La Gomera (-8.6%), Fuerteventura (- 5.5%), Gran Canaria (-4.6%) and Tenerife (-4.3%).
Santiago Sesé also alluded to the situation on La Palma: “I want to highlight the commitment of the Chamber to accompany the productive fabric of La Palma during this reconstruction, which, predictably, will be long. From the Chamber, I want to emphasize once again that we put businessmen have the resources of our Delegation on the island available for whatever they may need “.
