Likewise, the progressive re-opening of commercial establishments deemed non-essential since early May prompted a pick-up in retail sales that month, more markedly so in the case of products whose sales were more affected during the lockdown, such as personal equipment goods, home equipment and motor fuel. This improvement in consumer spending is expected to have run into June, according to the information available on payments made using cards. Throughout Q2, the labour market moved on a path of recovery similar to that described for economic activity. Consequently, the fall in Social Security registrations eased in May and, especially in June, following the heavy declines recorded in the second half of March and in April. In any event, registrations provide a partial picture of the scale of the labour market adjustment since the start of the crisis, insofar as the workers affected by furlough-like schemes (ERTEs) continue to be considered as registered, despite the fact they are not contributing to production. For a truer assessment of changes in the labour force since the onset of the crisis, regard is had to the series of registrations after having stripped out workers subject to ERTEs. This series, which might be dubbed “actual registrations”, is estimated to have shown a year-on-year decline of 22% at end-April, with much sharper reductions in some of the services segments most affected by the restrictions on movement 2  associated with the state of alert, such as the hospitality sector.
We are well aware that crises that incorporate a significant financial downturn are usually deeper and longerlasting. The health crisis will directly affect the profitability of the European banking sector. Such profitability was already low before the crisis broke, and events have highlighted the need to tackle even more urgently certain challenges, such as those associated with digitalisation, the management of cybersecurity risks, reputational risks and those relating to climate change. This underscores the importance of making further headway in improving banking efficiency. Given the extraordinarily prevalent role played by this sector in the Spanish and European economy, how successfully these challenges are resolved will notably influence the intensity and sustainability of economic growth in the coming years. The importance of an extension and selective adaptation of national stimulus measures In the national economic policy arena, achieving the dual aim of supporting the recovery and smoothing the adjustment of the economy to the post-pandemic scenario calls for two actions. First, the authorities must extend and regularly recalibrate some of the 6  measures already applied, which will have to be more closely focused now on the groups of firms, sectors and individuals most affected. And further, their design should enable the structural adjustments needed ahead of the new post-pandemic environment to be brought about. Allow me to illustrate this idea in relation to two measures that have been particularly important in recent months: the policies on guarantees and on ERTEs.