Argentina's economy contracted for a third consecutive month last November, further dampening the annual outlook for the coming 12 months.
The news comes with the government seeking to boost trade with Brazil and revive growth in the face of a severe drought that could hurt agricultural exports this year.
Data released by the INDEC national statistics bureau on Tuesday showed 5.9 percent growth between January and November 2022 compared year-on-year.
The bureau’s Monthly Estimate of Economic Activity – which anticipates the country’s gross domestic product – registered a 2.6 percent year-on-year rebound in November from the same month the previous year but a 0.7 percent decrease compared to October, according to the report. Both those figures undershot analysts’ forecasts.
Hotels and restaurants reported the highest year-on-year expansion last November, improving 22.1 percent, the data showed.
The International Monetary Fund currently forecasts that Argentina’s economy recorded four percent growth last year, a figure that it predicts will halve to two percent in 2023.
The latest figures come as Argentina and Brazil, the country's biggest trading partner, unveil plans to boost trade ties through a programme to finance Argentine importers and a long-cherished idea of a common currency to replace the dollar in bilateral trade.
Argentina is also facing a severe drought that threatens to dampen agricultural production in the grain-producing Pampas region this year, further damaging the nation's growth prospects.
– TIMES/BLOOMBERG/AFP
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