A recessive year has a negative impact on profits

Net profits fell by 11.3% last year compared to 2015, according to figures from 54 companies listed on the Quito Stock Exchange.

Paul McEvoy, the general manager of the BVQ (Quito Stock Exchange for its Spanish acronym), said a “not very encouraging” economic scenario had been envisaged for companies in recent years, thus leading to a reduction in the demand for consumption of goods and services.

Last year the economy of the country fell by 1.5%, according to figures from the Central Bank of Ecuador. Of eighteen sectors, ten plummeted. Renato Carló, president of the Chamber of Small Industries of Guayas, considered that his guild registers 900 active companies and trade fell by 22% last year compared to the previous year.

These results, he said, have impacted on profits and on the bonuses paid to workers until this April 15.

In the case of the 54 companies analyzed by the BVQ, more than half registered a reduction in the amount allocated for the payment of the Income Tax caused and the profits bonuses to workers compared to the value disbursed in 2015.

These companies include banks, importing business of pharmaceutical products, insurance companies, paper companies, among others. The profits figures reached those recorded four years ago.