Economic activity contracted 4.9% during the second quarter of the year, in relation to the same period of 2022, affected by the historic drought that had a negative impact on the agricultural sectorThe National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reported this Tuesday.
Furthermore, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between April and June of this year it was 2.8% below that registered between January and March, the organization added.
“This was worse than the 2.5% contraction expected in the Central Bank’s REM and marked a sharp slowdown in activity, given that GDP has grown 0.9% quarterly (revised upward from 0.7%) in the first trimester”, noted a Balanz report.
Despite the drop in GDP in the second quarter, The growth in the first half of 2023 is 1.5% y/y, compared to the same period in 2022.
The agriculture and livestock sector collapsed 40.2% in the second quarter compared to the same period of the previous year, due to the severe drought that affected the sector, while fishing presented a year-on-year drop of 30.5%.
The exploitation of mines and quarries, which includes lithium exploitation, rose 6.3%, At the same time, the manufacturing industry registered a decrease of 1%, while construction activity had a growth of 1.8%, due to the works carried out in the mining and oil sector.
Distribution of electricity, gas and water decreased 6.3% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same quarter of 2022, and the transportation, storage and communications sector had a decrease of 3.7%.
The wholesale, retail and repairs sector had an increase of 0.6% and the hotels and restaurants sector registered an increase of 6.4%.
During the course of the second quarter of 2023, the activity of Financial intermediation had a 3% year-on-year drop
Gross fixed capital formation, according to preliminary estimates, experienced a decrease of 1.1% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year.
This retraction was the product of a 2.3% drop in investment in construction, due to the 16.1% increase in “other construction”, due to the 6.6% decrease in machinery and equipment and due to the 18% growth in transportation equipment.
Within machinery and equipment, the national component fell 3.7% and the imported component fell 8.7%. In transportation equipment, the national component increased 26.4% and the imported component had a decrease of 8.3%.
In global demand, a decrease of 1.1% was observed in gross fixed capital formation, and a drop in exports of real goods and services of 10.9%. Private consumption grew 0.8% and public consumption rose 2.6%.
For this year, the Ministry of Economy estimated that GDP will decline 2.7% and recover 2.5% next year, according to the estimates included in the Budget Bill.
Source: Ambito
