The National Institute of Statistics has had to carry out a profound correction of its data on the situation of the Spanish tile sector, which has went from registering a growth of 15.5% to recognizing that they suffered a drop of 3.8% in the accumulated until September.
This very strong correction, which has caused deep concern in several industrial sectors, comes after the complaints that the Spanish Association of Tile and Flooring Manufacturers (Ascer) has made in recent months until the national body reviewed its figures. .
The origin of these divergences with the organization chaired by Elena Manzanera is justified by the change in the base year for measuring this index, which since January 2024 changed the base year to 2021. Since then, the results published monthly did not fit with the evolution of the activity of companies. While the Industrial Production Index assured that the sector was growing strongly, the figures managed by ASCER reflected the opposite.
The employers’ association even went further and carried out a production survey during the first six months of the year to ascertain the deep discrepancy that existed. In fact, the results of this survey showed that, with a representativeness of 80.8% of the sector’s production, a drop in production from January to June 2024 of -2.3% was observed compared to the same period in 2023. , which meant a completely opposite result with the IPI which then showed 11.6% growth.
The sector quickly warned of this discrepancy. At that time, as explained by Alberto Echavarría, general secretary of Ascer, “we spoke with the IVE, who at all times have been collaborators, they asked us for more information, we shared the sample with them and we had a meeting with them on October 1” .
For Ascer, a production figure that grew by 15% with exports that fell by 6% did not fit. If, in addition, gas consumption was falling and the August data – generally negative – was positive again, the INE’s error would be evident.
At the end of that week, the events predicted by Ascer were confirmed. The data for August IPI said that the sector had grown by 45.9% while exports continued to decline and the Enagas large consumer index showed a decline in natural gas consumption.
The Valencian Institute of Statistics analyzed all the documentation and was in charge of discussing with the INE the revision of said index. Industrial production indices (IPI) are volume indices whose purpose is to measure the short-term evolution of added value in industrial branches. The periodicity of this indicator is monthly. In this way, the IPI has spent the entire year saying that the sector had recovered while the reality of the same was completely opposite, which generates uncertainty due to the existing obstacles to its correction.
#tile #sector #forces #INE #correct #figures #grow #falls
