Argentina’s economy fell 1.7% year-on-year in April and also showed a deterioration compared to March. Thus, it was placed in its lowest level since mid-2021when the country was still going through the difficulties that Covid-19 brought on activity.
According to official data published this Friday, the manufacturing industry was the sector that had the greatest impact on the general variation, suffering a 15.7% drop compared to April last year. It was followed by trade and constructionwith landslides of 13.1% and 24.8%respectively.
Only three sectors improved in annual terms and contributed to attenuate the fall in the Monthly Estimator of Economic Activity (EMAE) of the INDEC. These were agriculture, mining and energy, and fishing.
The increase in agricultural and livestock production (+70.3%) explained most of the slowdown in the annual contraction of the EMAE. This fundamentally responded to the low comparison base, since at this point in 2023 the field was suffering from the serious effects of the drought.
According to what Ámbito was able to find out, Without agriculture, economic activity would have shown an annual decline of 6.6%.
Likewise, the economy once again hit a new floor in monthly termsas opposed to the slight improvement expected by most analysts. Specifically, the numbers indicated a 0.1% worsening in relation to March.
“In April, activity was hitting its bottom. The barely negative data, and the correction to moderate the decline in March, mark a plateauing in activity leveltypical of an economy that is looking for its floor,” he said Eugenio Mari, Chief Economist of the Freedom and Progress Foundation, although he stressed that we are “far from a general recovery.”
“The approval of the law Bases and the fiscal package in Congress they open the door for the Government to accelerate exchange rate unification and Disassembly of shift controls, which at this time are the main brake on the inflow of capital and investments. Based on these reforms, we can bet that the economy will enter into a clearer recovery in the second half,” he said.
From these numbers, in the first quarter of the year the EMAE accumulated a 4.2% drop.
Source: Ambito
