Gov’t remains positive despite industry slump

Argentina’s car manufacturing, construction and industrial output experienced sharp declines in March and April, according to reports by the INDEC national statistic bureau and the ADEFA car manufacturers chamber.

Industrial production fell 13.4 percent in March, for an eleventh consecutive month of decline, while INDEC’s construction indicators were 12.3 percent down on the same month last year, a seventh consecutive month of decline. Manufacturing in the first quarter of 2019 was 11.1 percent down on the same period of 2018.

Nonetheless, the Mauricio Macri administration projected some signs of optimism, despite the bleak results, with the Interior Ministry reporting Monday that INDEC’s data showed “positive data indicating the first quarter ended positively despite the negative numbers in March.”

The construction industry, it pointed out, “closed the first quarter with 4.4 percent growth, without seasonal factors, which was the first quarterly increase of its kind since the fourth quarter in 2017.”

Car manufacturing slumped in the first quarter, with a 33.9 percent drop in production in April compared to the same month last year, ADEFA reported.

Just over 30,000 cars were manufactured locally in April, with the crisis in the sector showing no signs of letting up. During April, sales of vehicles fell 52 percent in relation to the same month of 2018, a recent report from ACARA revealed.

Construction and industrial output all showed signs of decline, INDEC reported. Industrial production fell 13.4 percent in March, compared to the same month the previous year. In the first quarter of 2019, industrial production fell 11.1 percent compared to the same period of 2018, INDEC added. The construction sector is also suffering major economic challenges, with production dropping 12.3 percent in March.

Production fell 3.5 percent in March year-on-year, while first quarter production this receded 11.3 percent compare to the same period last year.

Despite slight growth in inter-annual comparisons in January and February, the sector reported its seventh consecutive month of decline.