Economic and financial performance of Spanish firms in 2021 and in the first three quarters of 2022 according to the Central Balance sheet data office

According to the Central Balance Sheet Data Office integrated database (CBI), 2021 saw a notable recovery in the economic and financial position of most firms, partially reversing the previous year’s COVID-19-related downturn. This improvement was more pronounced in the industries hardest hit by this crisis. Meanwhile, data from the Central Balance Sheet Data Office Quarterly Survey (CBQ), which allow more recent developments to be analysed, reveal that corporate profits for the sample overall continued growing at a brisk pace in the first three quarters of 2022, albeit highly unevenly across sectors. This further bolstered the economic and financial position of most of the firms in the sample. Nonetheless, the data referring only to Q3 show a loss of momentum in corporate profits, reflecting the slowdown in economic activity. This article includes a box analysing recent profit margin developments, using two different approaches. The box concludes that, thanks to the recovery in ordinary profits, the gross value added margin (which measures the proportion of this surplus retained by firms after personnel costs) continued to rise in 2022 for the CBQ overall, to stand at levels similar to the pre-pandemic figures. This is compatible with a slight contraction in the margin on sales, which is calculated as the ratio of gross operating profit to sales and enables analysis of the extent to which firms have been able to pass rising production costs through to their customers.