ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Industry and construction continue free fall

Data indicates industrial production slumped by 4.5% in November – 19th consecutive month of decline.

Worker José Esquivel takes a brief break inside the Work Cooperative Los Constituyentes Limited metallurgical plant, which was formed by workers in response to the 2001 economic crisis, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Foto: AP/Natacha Pisarenko
09 January 2020

Industrial production in Argentina collapsed 4.5 percent in November 2019 in the annual comparison, registering a 19th consecutive month of decline, the INDEC national statistics bureau has revealed.

Between January and November last year, toward the end of the Mauricio Macri government, industry collapsed 6.9 percent compared to the same 11 months of 2018.

Manufacturing decreased by November 3.3 percent compared to October, INDEC added.

The automobile sector was hit hardest in November, the bureau said, with a slump of 23.8 percent on the same month of the previous year, followed by appliances and instruments (down 9.9 percent), machinery and equipment (down 9.1 percent) and non-metallic minerals (down 5.8 percent).

Meanwhile, construction activity fell 5.2 percent in November year-on-year. In the first 11 months of 2019, construction fell eight percent compared to the previous year.

Argentina has been gripped by recession for many months. The IMF and the World Bank estimate that the country will register a decline in GDP of 3.1 percent for 2019, with inflation expected to have reached around 55 percent. 

– TIMES/AFP

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