In the first quarter of this year, non-financial companies as a whole have just recovered the figure for dividends paid out prior to the pandemic: almost €84,000 million in dividends, taking the cumulative figure for the last four quarters. This is only 750 million less than in 2019, according to El País newspaper, based on data provided by the Bank of Spain.
However, if only the amounts for the first quarter of 2023 are taken, they already exceed those of the same period in 2019: shareholders have been paid 11,314 million compared to 9,982 million four years ago.
The 84,754 million paid out in 2019 was a record in the midst of a difficult economic environment marked by trade tensions and the slowdown. Between 2008 and 2016, dividends were stagnant at around 55 billion. They started to grow strongly from 2017 onwards. Then came the coronavirus and in 2021 they fell back to 68 billion.
