Cigarette sales hit historic low in Spain

SPANIARDS are slowly but surely shrugging off their addiction to smoking. Cigarette sales have decreased by 2.4 per cent in the first half of 2015, with a total of just more than 1.1 billion packets sold. Sales generated profits of €4.9 million for the industry, 0.6 per cent less than last year, according to the data released by the Tobacco Market Commissioner for Tobacco.
The sector continues to register a negative trend, although figures have stabilised with a slight decrease if compared with the same period of 2014.
Sales of rolling tobacco decreased by 1.6 per cent, to 3.1 million kilos, while pipe tobacco has continued registering a significant positive trend with a climb in sales of 6.3 per cent (to 344,748 kilos). Cigars sales dropped just slightly, by 0.06 per cent.
Cigarette sales reached a historic minimum in 2014, with a total of 2.3 billion packets sold over the full year, which translated into a 1.49 per cent fall compared with 2013, linking six consecutive years of reductions and the lowest sales figures since the register began in 1989.
The decrease has been mainly credited to the financial crisis, as before it began, in 2008, cigarette sales amounted to more than 4.5 billion packets per year.