Central Balance Sheet Data Office. Business Margin Observatory (BMO)

Central Balance Sheet Office – Business Margin Observatory (BMO) is a public initiative aimed at analysing and increasing transparency regarding the evolution of business margins in Spain, by providing relevant information on price formation and cost structures in the economy. Its objective is to make reliable statistical information available to researchers, analysts, and the general public, enabling an aggregated and rigorous understanding of the behaviour of business margins.

The information is compiled from the Central Balance Sheet Office of the Banco de España (the Observatory also provides margin-related details based on information from the Tax Agency), applying homogeneous methodological criteria and data-cleaning processes carried out by analysts and experts of the Central Balance Sheet Office. The institutional coverage refers to the sector of non-financial corporations resident in Spain, and the geographical scope encompasses the entire national territory. Data are disseminated exclusively in aggregated form, ensuring the anonymisation of firm-level information and the confidentiality of reporting units.

The dataset provides indicators related to business margins, enabling analysis of their evolution over time and their relationship with costs and prices. Statistics are published at an annual frequency, based on information from the Integrated Central Balance Sheet Database, and at a quarterly frequency, based on the Quarterly Central Balance Sheet Office, which facilitates both structural and cyclical monitoring of margins in the Spanish economy. The time coverage extends back to the mid-1990s for the annual series and up to the most recent years available for the quarterly series.

The statistics incorporate periodic revisions associated with benchmark changes or modifications to accounting frameworks and classifications of economic activities (CNAE), in line with standard official statistical practices. Given its institutional nature, its methodological foundation, and its integration within the statistics of the Central Balance Sheet Office of the Banco de España, this dataset constitutes a key reference for economic analysis, the study of business margin dynamics, and the assessment of cost and price developments in the Spanish economy.

Categories: Non-financial corporations