Thursday, March 28, 2024
Perfil

ECONOMY | 21-07-2021 22:00

INDEC: Economic activity in May fell 2% from previous month

Argentina's economy grew 13.6% in May year-on-year, but declined 2% on the previous month, reports INDEC.

Argentina's economy grew 13.6 percent in May year-on-year, but contracted two percent from the previous month, in large part due to a nine-day lockdown during the Covid-19 second wave, the INDEC national statistics bureau reported Wednesday.

The data, from INDEC's monthly estimator of economic activity (EMAE, anticipating gross domestic product), means that the country's economy grew 9.5 percent from January to May of this year compared to the same period in 2020.

The economy suffered a drastic fall in April and May of 2020, when a strict lockdown was imposed to tackle the arrival of Covid-19 in the country. The quarantine period lasted months, with activity reopening only gradually.

The health measures imposed in May this year put a brake on signs of reactivation in industry, production and commerce. Argentina has now been in recession for three years, with economic turmoil aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, GDP collapsed 9.9 percent.

All sectors studied in the EMAE indicators registered increases in activity in May compared to the previous year, with the exception of agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry, which registered a fall (minus 4.3 percent), according to INDEC.

Among the greatest positive variations, 'other activities' (defined as community, social and personal services) were up 113.6 percent and hotels and restaurants, entirely shuttered during the pandemic initially, rose 54.3 percent from May 2020.

Manufacturing was up 29.9 percent year-on-year, with wholesale, retail and repairs up 23.3 percent. Both items were responsible for more than half of the EMAE's year-on-year rise, according to the bureau.

– TIMES/AFP

related news

Comments

More in (in spanish)