The beginning of the year 2022 had a slight slowdown on the economic dynamicsAC. This was revealed by National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), which announced that economic activity registered an annual growth of 7.8% in the first month of the year, below the figures of recent months.
(See: Colombia’s trade deficit was US$1,704.9 million in January).
This also represents a 2.2% month-on-month drop, when compared to the data for December 2021.
“Behind this contraction we have a structural element in primary activities, especially in agriculture, and specifically there is a conjunctural element in financial and insurance activities, due to the payment of the insurer Mapfre (for the last payment of compensation from Hidroituango) , which leads to financial and insurance activities contributing 1.9 negative percentage points to the annual variation”, explained the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo.
Thus, the Economy Monitoring Indicator (ISE), by January 2022, it was located at 104.8 points in its series adjusted for the calendar effect, which represents a performance of 4.8% higher than that of February 2020, the pre-pandemic benchmark with which the measurement is compared.
The ISE in its original series stood at 109.18, which represented a growth of 7.79% compared to January 2021.
(See: What are the chances of a new tax? Anif replied).
Oviedo clarified that, despite the affectation, the data for January is “within the continuous trend of the annual ISE data since May 2021, an element that gives a robust character to the growth dynamics of the economy, but that slows down in January due to a conjunctural element”.
THE SECTORS
According to the director of the entity, three sectors contributed 6.8 percentage points (pps) to the variation of the ISE in January. the of trade, transportation, accommodation and food services was responsible for 3.7 points, the manufacturing industries contributed 1.5 (pps) and the actartistic, entertainment and other service activities contributed 1.6 pps.
(See: Colombia converts US$341 million of multilateral loans to pesos).
“We see a change, in December, and in October and November, we saw in third place the public administration and spending on health and education were being one of the main contributors to economic activities. We see a new group or a new activity contributing growth points in a significant way, which are the artistic and entertainment activities, which contribute the remainder of those 6.8 pps”, Oviedo clarified.
The director of the Dane stressed that this is evidence of the effect of lifting of mobility and capacity restrictions, which significantly affected these activities.
BRIEFCASE
