Ljubljana - The Covid-19 epidemic has hit the hospitality industry hard as sales in the sector in the first eight months were down by almost 33% year-on-year, the Statistics Office reported on Friday as it also provided broader data for the services and commerce sectors.

In the January-August period, the volume of sales in the services sector and commerce was down 10.4% year-on-year, with the drop in the former 13% and in the latter 5.8%.

In the services sector, the almost one-third drop in the hospitality industry was the largest one, while it was the smallest in information and communication activity (-1.7%).

In August, sales in the services and commerce sectors were down after three consecutive months of growth, dropping by 3.4% compared to July.

According to the Statistics Office, the drop in the services sector was 3%, and in commerce 1%. In the former, the volume of sales dropped the most in professional, scientific and technical activities (-8.3%) and in logistics (-2.5%).

On the other hand, sales in the hospitality industry in August were up by 3.3%, followed by real estate brokerage (+1.6%) and information and communication activity (+0.5%).

At the annual level, sales in the services and commerce sectors were down by 7% in August.