ARCHIVED - Bank of Spain confirms small businesses worst affected by Covid losses.
Hospitality was the sector which suffered the most in Spain, losing almost half its revenue and 35 per cent of its jobs.
By now, it will come as no surprise to anyone to hear that the Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on the Spanish economy in general, with thousands of businesses having to close down across the country. With this in mind, the Banco de España has carried out a survey on business activity to determine the impact of the Covid-19 crisis which revealed that the effects varied greatly depending not just on the sector but also on the business's size, age and location.
As a general rule, companies with fewer than 49 members of staff saw their turnover reduced by almost 20 per cent in 2020, while medium and large companies reported drops of about 12 per cent.
Overall, Spanish companies across the sectors saw their turnover fall by 16.1 per cent in 2020 compared to the previous year.
The hospitality sector was the worst affected of all, registering a 45.5 per cent drop in turnover, while at the other end of the scale the manufacturing industry reported a fall of just 12.7 per cent in turnover.
The survey, which received 4,000 answers, found that businesses in rural areas were also less impacted by the crisis, as were those which had been running for a long time, while smaller, newer businesses, especially in built-up areas, reported the greatest losses.