TW
0

Palma.—The figures were released yesterday by the Majorcan small to medium-sized business association, Pimeco, using findings researched by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In fact there was little good financial news yesterday because as well as reporting the year-on-year decline in trade for June, traders said they had also earned 22 million euros less in the first half of this year than during the same period in 2010.

Pimeco did, however, point out that its members registered 23 million euros more in sales in June this year than for the previous month of May, but said by way of rejoinder that this pattern of sharp increase falls in line with the seasonal economic trends of the Balearic Islands.

Pimeco highlighted the fact that forecasts for a significant improvement in business during the high tourist season have so far not been met. However, the association is not discounting the fact that the spending power of resident consumers has been so badly affected by the crisis, that any boost to earning contributed by the tourist community may have simply gone unnoticed.

There was better news so far as employment in the retail trade is concerned. Pimeco's report showed that there had been an upturn of 1.2 percent in the commerce sector in comparison with June 2010 whilst figures for Spain as a whole showed that there had been a 0.7 percent downturn in employment last month.