After several months of mediocre performance, the largest increase was recorded since March due to improvement in some sectors.
Industrial production in Uruguay was 2% higher in July than that recorded in the same month last year, reported today the Statistics National Institute (INE). It is the largest year-on-year increase since March and implies some improvement in the sector, after several months of lackluster performance.
The advance was due to higher production of cellulose, products from the beverage industry and improvements in the milling industry, among others. On the contrary, there were setbacks in areas such as textiles, tanneries and sawmills.
It should be noted that in July there was a year-on-year drop of almost 20% in the activity of the La Teja refinery. Leaving aside the oil industry, industrial production grows 3.3% year-on-year. This calculation will be especially relevant in the coming months, when the refinery goes into shutdown for maintenance.
In the accumulated annual period (January-July) the industry shows a very modest advance of 0.9%. Sectors such as the beverage industry, pulp, the production of Pepsi concentrates in the Colonia Free Trade Zone and the pharmaceutical products branch.
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Employment
Jobs in the industry had a slight year-on-year increase in July, of 0.5%, although in the accumulated figure for the year there was a drop of almost 1%. Industrial production has tended to increase in sectors and companies with high capital investment, but with more limited and specialized job creation. Automation and the incorporation of information technologies also limit the ability to generate direct employment in the Industrial sector.
Even so, many of these sectors generate dynamics in support services and, therefore, more employment in these tasks, indirectly linked to industrial activity.
Source: Ambito
