The Balearic economy “has not started the year on the right foot”, as highlighted in the economic report presented a few days ago by the employer CAEB, in which it is noted that the first quarter of this year closed with a fall of 19.9% ​​compared to the same period in 2020 in which only its last fortnight was affected by the declaration of the state of alarm. The president of this business organization, Carmen Planas, warned of the risk of falling into a “mirage of optimism ” due to the fact that finally this year may be better than the previous one, given that in 2020 the islands suffered the biggest drop in the Gross Domestic Product in all of Spain, and she stressed that it really will not be until 2022 when we can speak of positive data for the archipelago. Although the impact of the declines is softening (the fall of 19.9% ​​in this first quarter is somewhat less severe than that of 27.1% in the last three months of 2020 ), there are two pieces of information that continue to be notably negative, according to the report: the drop of 22.2% in the services sector, which includes activities such as accommodation, restaurants or commerce, and the 22.3% in consumption, the latter figure reflects the cut in spending by resident families, in many cases affected by the loss of income derived from ERTE and unemployment, but also the sharp decline in the outlay made by tourists, given the difficulties in travelling that persisted during the first three months of the year. For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.