In September the activity level of the industry contracted compared to the previous month by 0.2%, while the construction the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) reported today it fell by 2.9%.
In year-over-year terms, in the first nine months of the year, industry accumulated an increase of 6% and construction of 6.3%.
In the month of September, 13 of the 16 items in the manufacturing industry showed year-over-year increases.
In order of incidence on a general level, inter-year increases of 2.9% are recorded in food and beverages; 14% in vehicles and auto parts; 7.7% in base metals.
As for construction, the decline was the second in a row on a monthly basis. Furthermore, that of September was 0.6 percentage points higher than that of August.
For the second consecutive month, cement shipments decreased (1% monthly), although in 9 months it accumulated an annual growth of 11.2%. In the case of asphalt, the fall was 2.8% monthly and accumulates 6.4% annually until September.
With the decline in August, construction fell 7.4% below the high level reached in early 2018, coinciding with the industry’s all-time high.
According to the consultancy LCG, “we believe that current levels of activity will operate from a ceiling compared to 2022, with a dynamic that we hope will continue to be stagnant. Primarily, the shortage of reserves of BCRA increasingly violates access to imports, affect the availability of supplies. ”Regarding construction,“ we expect activity to remain moderately at current levels ”.
Indec also conducted a qualitative survey in the manufacturing sector on the prospects for the coming months.
Businessmen asked how they expect an evolution in domestic demand up to and including December, 31.8% expect an increase against 24.2% expecting a decrease, while the remaining 44% do not expect major changes.
As regards the case of construction, 66.1% of companies that are dedicated to private works estimate that there will be no significant changes in the activity against 19.6% which foresees an increase and 14.3% a drop.
The consulting firm ACM recalled that “the share of respondents who believe that both manufacturing and construction activities may decrease in this last phase of the year has increased”.
Source: Clarin
