SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, December 15. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Tenerife’s economy is growing above the regional average, with a positive tone in business confidence and significant strength, as can be seen from the results of the Tenerife Island Bulletin for the third quarter of the year, which also indicate that 2023 will be a “good year” for the island’s economy, although a slowdown is warned for 2024 due to the depletion of the purchasing power of families and tourists.
The document was presented this Friday at the Tenerife Cabildo with the presence of the vice president and Minister of Tourism, Lope Afonso; the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Primary Sector and Animal Welfare, Manuel Fernández; the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santiago Sesé, and the general director of the chamber entity, Lola Pérez.
Manuel Fernández highlighted that “for the first time in Tenerife there are 423,000 people working” and therefore, “it is normal” that Business Confidence on the island is higher than the regional average, since economy and employment are being generated here.
The counselor also highlighted that “more than 70,000 people currently work in Tenerife in the commercial sector with more than 6,000 companies, meanwhile, the primary sector is stabilizing and we are promoting it from the Cabildo.”
For his part, he noted that “industry is the sector that has performed best in the last quarter of the year, increasing registrations of commercial vehicles by 30% and the movement of goods by 11% more.”
“We are talking about 1,321 industrial companies on the island, which generate more than 17,000 direct jobs, and almost 50,000 indirectly. In tourism, Tenerife also registers record numbers of visitor arrivals, much higher than 2022,” he noted.
Santiago Sesé said that in the third quarter of 2023 “the figures have stabilized” compared to 2022, “although they are positive and it is the tourism sector that truly acts as a locomotive and drag.”
In fact, he indicated that “39% of the foreign tourism that has arrived in the Canary Islands has come to Tenerife, a very relevant fact that must be valued, meanwhile, up to 45% of the national tourism that visits the archipelago comes to Tenerife is the island that receives the most tourists in the Canary Islands.”
In his opinion, “the good performance of tourism has allowed other sectors such as transportation and industry to be energized, we are optimistic about the closing of the fourth quarter of 2023.”
Lola Pérez pointed out that “the services sector is the one that continues to drive, to a greater extent, the island’s economy and employment, and in the rest of the sectors it is worth highlighting better performance in the industrial sector, compared to a slight decline in activity and employment. during the third quarter in the agricultural and construction sectors”.
GOOD SUMMER
This economic report, prepared by the Cameral Studies Service with the sponsorship of the Cabildo de Tenerife, shows that during the summer months the Tenerife economy stabilized its behavior compared to the second quarter, which did not prevent it from continuing to exceed the records achieved in the same period of the year 2022.
Consumption showed symptoms of slowdown during the quarter, although it continued to improve in annual terms, while investment continued its advance with a downward trend.
The island’s businesspeople are more optimistic than pessimistic, with a slightly positive level of confidence in the fourth quarter of 0.4%, compared to the small regional decline of -0.4%, highlighted Lola Pérez.
The entry of tourists reached maximum levels in this period of the year with 1,549,403 tourists (foreign and national), 5.5% above the figures from a year ago and well above the average regional growth of 2.8%.
Tenerife ended the third quarter of 2023 with 422,990 employed people, after seeing its number decrease by 1,560 people during the summer months, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA).
Despite this small quarterly drop of 0.4%, the island has 31,140 more workers than a year ago (7.9%), also above the average regional increase of 5.3%.
Looking at the unemployment figures, there is a decrease both in their quarterly evolution, with 830 fewer unemployed than in June (-1%), and compared to the figures from a year ago with a drop of 5,310 people (-6.3% ).
LESS THAN 80,000 UNEMPLOYED
In this way, the number of unemployed people in Tenerife was below 80,000 people in the month of September, specifically 78,580, for the second consecutive quarter.
Expectations for the end of the year appear cautious (59.6% of companies estimate that they will maintain stable activity during the last three months of the year), although the percentage of optimistic companies is still higher (24.5%) than to the pessimists (15.9%).
Taking stock of the results achieved during the period of January and September and the activity forecasts for the fourth quarter from the Chamber confirm that 2023 will be a good year for the economy and employment of Tenerife.
However, he maintains that this situation will be difficult to sustain throughout 2024 due to the exhaustion of many of the factors that have influenced this improvement and the loss of purchasing power that Canarian families and residents have experienced in the last year. tourists.
