The economic impact of COVID-19 started to become clearer on Tuesday as some economic data was published for the second quarter of the year. The data covers April to June, when tourist establishments and many shops were closed because of the pandemic. 

The National Statistics Office said that during the second quarter, working-day adjusted turnover in selected services activities decreased by 27.1 per cent over the same quarter in 2019.
 
Decreases in turnover were recorded in the accommodation and food service activities (87.1 per cent), administrative and support service activities (49.3 per cent), transportation and storage (47.6 per cent), real estate activities (46.5 per cent), motor trade (37.3 per cent), wholesale trade (21.8 per cent), retail
trade (13.5 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical activities (8.5 per cent).

Conversely, an increase of 14.8 per cent was registered in the information and communication activities.

Employment, gross wages and salaries, and hours worked declined by
7.8, 5.2 and 10.8 per cent respectively over the corresponding quarter in 2019.

Quarterly comparison

When compared to the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted services turnover index recorded a decrease of 27.3 per cent).

Lower turnover was recorded in the accommodation and food service activities (94.3 per cent), transportation and storage (46.7 per cent), administrative and support service activities (44.0 per cent), motor trade (33.0 per cent), real estate activities (29.3 per cent), wholesale trade (24.2 per cent), retail
trade (15.4 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical activities (15.1 per cent).

On the other hand, an increase of 3.2 per cent was registered in the information and communication activities.

The seasonally adjusted employment  and gross wages and salaries and hours
worked decreased by 9.8, 9.4 and 12.3 per cent respectively.