Trade in the Dana area of Valencia took up to eight months to recover.

BarcelonaIn addition to the loss of life, the Valencia storm a year ago caused an 83% drop in retail sales at ground zero between October 30 and November 5. In fact, this sector was among the hardest hit by the effects, with sales declines that lasted six months and didn't regain the pace of the rest of the country until eight months later, according to an analysis conducted by CaixaBank Research using data from its clients' transactions and operations. Sales generally began to increase again starting in June.

The bank's research department has studied the evolution of consumption in the area most affected by the floods using aggregated and anonymized data from CaixaBank card payments and point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Consumption fell by 47% in the days immediately following the flood, from September 30 to November 5. However, "the recovery was rapid: a month later, residents' spending growth already exceeded the national average, probably as a result of the need to replace goods." This trend has also continued over the past year, although the gap with the Spanish average has narrowed in recent months. The data show that a recovery in consumption does not directly imply an increase in the turnover of local establishments.

Uneven Impact

The impact of the floods was not uniform across the affected municipalities, nor was the recovery. Clear cases are those of Alfafar and Paiporta, where resident consumption grew more than 20% year-on-year in September, while commercial revenues barely exceeded the previous year. The authors of the analysis, Zoel Martín Vilató and Eduard Alcobé Garcia, believe that the difference can be explained by the fact that some businesses had not resumed activity. Today, the entire area affected by the flood already has more active businesses than before the flood. However, there are municipalities such as Massanassa and Sedaví that have not yet recovered to pre-storm levels.

The data demonstrate the existence of inequality in the evolution according to the characteristics of those affected. Among residents, those with lower incomes were the hardest hit, with their consumption falling by as much as 82%, compared to 40% among those with higher incomes. Furthermore, between December 2024 and September 2025, consumption among low-income earners increased by 12% year-on-year, below the 16% recorded among high-income earners, thus widening the consumption gap.

And among companies, size has been a determining factor. Thus, large companies, generally with greater financial muscle, held up better: turnover fell by 85% after the economic downturn, but by September of this year, it had already recovered to the level of the previous year. In contrast, small companies suffered a 98% drop, and a year later, turnover was still more than 10% below the same period of the previous year.