The INDEC Industrial Production Index grew 1.5% compared to July. It reached its highest level of the Milei era, although it is still far from recovering previous values.
The manufacturing industry recorded its second consecutive monthly improvement in August and reached its highest level of the Javier Milei era. Even so, in year-on-year terms it contracted 6.9% and In the first eight months of 2024, it accumulated a contraction of 13.6%.
According to official data this Tuesday, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) of INDEC presented a monthly increase of 1.5%. The benchmark had just recorded an advance of 7.2% in July, after hitting a deep bottom in June.
However, the sector is still far from recovering the levels prior to the arrival of the new government, that deepened the recession that the Argentine economy was already going through, with the addition of the increase of unemploymentwhich further affected consumption and demand for industrial products.
The sectors that avoid the industrial crisis
Regarding August 2023, only four of the 16 divisions that make up the IPI presented increases. These items were: food and beverages, clothing and footwear, oil refining and other transportation equipment. It is worth noting that, of them, only the first two have a significant weight in the INDEC indicator.
In food, the main positive impact was reflected in the milling of oilseeds. Likewise, they also highlighted a greater production of fish and wines.
Lower domestic demand keeps the industry far from 2023 levels
At the other extreme, the largest annual landslides were suffered by non-metallic mineral products (-22.2%), machinery and equipment (-19.2%) and wood and paper products (-17.8%).
According to those reported by INDEC, the lower activity in wood and paper was mainly related to the decrease in the production of paper and cardboard for containers and packaging by lower orders from different sectors, such as construction materials or footwearand to the ddecline in domestic demand for wood for the construction sector and the furniture industry.
In the machinery and equipment segment, the collapse was fundamentally linked to the poor performance in agricultural machinerywhile in the dynamics of non-metallic mineral products it was tied to the drop in construction activitywhich reduced its demand for inputs such as cement.
Source: Ambito
