2022 was a year of good figures for the Colombian economy, and the result of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which grew 7.5%, He reaffirmed that the effect of the reactivation after the pandemic is still being felt in productive activity.
(Read: Lights and shadows of the labor reform of the Petro government).
Three sectors were the protagonists in the GDP of 2022: commerce, transport, accommodation and food services, a branch that As a whole, it contributed 2.1 percentage points to the variation; manufacturing industries, with 1.2 percentage pointss, and artistic, entertainment and recreation activities, also with 1.2 points. These three groups explained almost half of GDP in 2022, 4.5 percentage points together.
The director of Dane, Piedad Urdinola, also highlighted that the sector that registered the greatest dynamism over the past year was artistic, entertainment and recreation activities, which grew 37.9%. This, according to the official, was explained by gambling and online games, and also by various concerts, mass activities, and sporting events that took place over the past year.
Most sectors grew in 2022, such as was the branch of information and communications (14.2%), trade, transportation, accommodation and food services (10.7%) and manufacturing industries (9.8%).
they also grew professional, scientific and technical activities, with a variation of 8.3%, financial and insurance activities (6.5%), construction (6.4%), public administration and defense, education and health (4.9%), the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (4.1 %), real estate activities (2.0%) and mining and quarrying, with 0.6%.
(In addition: What is the popular economy, the axis of the Government Development Plan).
Only the agricultural sector, with a performance of -1.9%, registered a negative variation in 2022. From the Anif economic studies center, it was highlighted that “The main mole in the growth data, without any surprise, is the agricultural sector”, which was affected by weather conditions that reduced harvests and the strong devaluation of the peso had an impact on the cost of inputs.
But the 7.5% figure was not entirely positive, since in fact it was below the projections of most analysts.
“The economy grew quite positively, but well below what the Banco de la República had and in general, analysts said, which was half a percentage point higher (8%).”, commented Sergio Olarte, chief economist at Scotiabank Colpatria.
Along with the data for the entire year, the Dane also provided the figures for the fourth quarter of 2022. The annual variation pFor the period between October and December it was 2.9%, lower than the other three quarters that preceded it.. In addition, the quarter-on-quarter variation “There was a difference between what the economic analysts were giving versus what we reported for the last quarter, but it’s not a slowdown. The number we deliver is positive, both for the quarter and the annual data. What we are already seeing is a return to the path of growth that we had from before the pandemic”, explained the Director of Dane.
(Read: Analysts project inflation of 1.57% in February and 8.90% in 2023).
In fact, When reviewing the quarterly growth figure, the economy grew only 0.7%if compared with the production of the economy that was registered between July and September 2022.
In the last part of the year, more sectors showed more modest performance, and even went into the red, such as it was the case of agriculture, livestock, hunting and fishing with -4.2%, construction (-1.9%) and mining and quarrying (-1.7%).
In the last quarter, the behavior of artistic and entertainment activities (40.5%), financial activities (8.4%), information and telecommunications (5.7%) and manufacturing industries (2.7%) stood out.
The unions highlighted the result
Spokesmen from different sectors celebrated the figure. From Andi, Bruce Mac Master, described the data as “good”, and assured that it strengthened the recovery. “It is an indication of the potential that the Colombian economy has.” Jonathan Malagón, president of Asobancaria, said that the figure “is good news” and that it was driven, especially, by household consumption, which was above the historical behavior.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
Portfolio Journalist
