Thursday, March 28, 2024
Perfil

ECONOMY | 02-12-2017 11:15

Industrial production up, biodiesel down and less of us are visiting the United States

Argentina’s biodiesel production fell by 20.5 percent in the third quarter of this year as against the same period in 2016, in what experts called a direct consequence of the United States government’s protectionist policies.

Numbers came in thick and fast again this week, with the headline statistic focused on production. Industrial production rose 4.4 percent in October by comparison with the same month in 2016 to record six consecutive months of growth, the INDEC statistics bureau announced on Thursday afternoon.

The first 10 months of this year thus registered a 1.8-percent rise in manufacturing production as against the same period in 2016. The biggest gains were in the automobile industry (25.6 percent), tobacco (17 percent) and non-metal mineral products (16.5 percent).

A similar percentage to the auto industry was also recorded for construction activity – 25.3 percent, one of the biggest increases in recent years, INDEC also reported. Meanwhile the Agro-industry Ministry estimated this year’s wheat harvest at 18 million tons, just below the record 18.39 million tons of the last harvest which came from a sown area of 6.36 million hectares as against 5.93 million this year.

However, Argentina’s biodiesel production fell by 20.5 percent in the third quarter of this year as against the same period in 2016, in what experts called a direct consequence of the United States government’s protectionist policies, INDEC said on Wednesday.

These restrictions, set in place following complaints from local US producers, prompted an even sharper plunge in exports in the same period – 30.4 percent. Of the 304,711 tons of bio-ethanol produced, 267.889 remained in the domestic market. In other statistical news, the number of Argentines visiting the United States in June fell by 33 percent last month, reaching a total of 49,740. This year to date, 373,512 Argentines have visited the US, a drop so far of 17.6 percent on last year’s figures.


In this news

Comments

More in (in spanish)