The balance of the first quarter of 2022 is favorable, for both industrial production and retail sales, with double-digit increases, according to reports provided by Dane.
(2022 starts with 2-digit growth in industry and commerce).
For the year to date, to March, compared to the same period in 2021, the Monthly Manufacturing Survey with a Territorial Approach showed that real production had an increase of 12.5%, real sales increased 12.5% and employed personnel, 4, 6%.
On the other hand, the variation for the month of March alone was 12.3%, while for real sales it was 11.2% and for employed personnel it was 4.6%, according to the Dane report.
Particularly in the data for the month, the performance of beverage production stands out, presenting a positive annual variation of 13.8% in the real production of the manufacturing industry, contributing 1.6 percentage points (pp) to the total annual variation (12 ,3%).
(Industrial production and trade sales closed higher in 2021).
On the other hand, coking, oil refining, and fuel mix presented the greatest negative contribution (-0.4 pp) and a variation of -6.1%.
In relation to employed personnel, clothing manufacturing, with a variation of 8.2%, was the domain that contributed the most positively (0.7 pp) to the total annual variation (4.6%), followed by the manufacture of plastic products, with a variation of 4.4% and a contribution of 0.3 pp
In the last twelve months, in the national total, the real production of the manufacturing industry increased 17.4%, real sales 17.0% and employed personnel 4.8%.
TRADE
Regarding the behavior of retail and vehicle trade, between January and March 2022 the variation in real sales was 12.4% compared to the same period last year. This variation without the sale of fuel or vehicles was 11.9%.
(The keys to the good start of industry and commerce in 2022).
For March, the activity presented a variation of 12.0% in its real sales compared to the same month of 2021. Without the sale of fuels and vehicles, the increase was 13.3%.
Employed personnel in retail and vehicle trade reflected a variation of 2.2% in March 2022 compared to the third month of 2021.
Sales through electronic commerce increased 77.5% in March 2022 compared to the same month of the immediately previous year, contributing 1.9 pp to the annual variation of total retail sales, excluding motor vehicles, motorcycles and their parts (23.6%).
THE BUSINESS CONFIDENCE, STABLE
For April, the Business Confidence Indicator -ICE- stood at 62.9, that is, 0.2 percentage points more than that registered in the immediately previous month (62.7).
By sectors, According to the Dane report, Services (64.9) and Manufacturing Industry (62.5) obtained the highest value of the ICE. Next came Commerce (62.3) and Construction (58.2).
Given the situation due to difficulties in importing, it is noteworthy that 11.0% of the total indicated problems in the supply of inputs last March.
“In turn, 72.5% of the companies reported that due to availability problems, they suffered an interruption in the flow of supplies; this ratio was 76.7% for companies in the Industry. 70.1% of the companies reported an increase in costs; in the Construction sector this percentage was 85.6%”, Dane reports.
Similarly, in March 2022, 5.3% of the companies in the four sectors reported a reduction in workers or hours worked, 1.0 pp less than what was registered in February 2022.
When reviewing this variable, construction showed the highest proportion of companies with this affectation (7.8%), followed by Industry (6.2%), Services (5.0%) and Commerce (4.4%).
Furthermore, in March, 12.0% of the economic units in the four sectors indicated problems in accessing financial services, which represents a reduction of 0.6 pp compared to the immediately previous month.
BRIEFCASE
