The industry continued its growth path in November by showing a 8.2% increase compared to the same month of 2019 and a 2.8% against last October, according to the latest Productive Panorama Report of the Center for Production Studies (CEPXXI) of the Ministry of Productive Development.
For its part, Formal industrial employment returned to levels at the beginning of 2019 with some 40,000 jobs up from the end of that year.
From the CEP they estimated that the level of economic activity will close 2021 with a rise of close to 10% and that, in the last four weeks – November two and the first fifteen days of December – growth compared to the same period in 2019 was 10 , 7% and 9.5% against the same period of 2018.
In the specific case of the industry, 10 out of 14 surveyed sectors maintained growth in November Since out of 1,059 industrial plants analyzed, 57.6% consumed more energy than in the same month of 2019, while the sector is expected to end the year 6% above 2019 and approximately 15% above 2020.
The sectors that consumed the most energy were non-metallic minerals (+ 24.2%,), oil refining (+ 19.4%), basic metals (+ 18.3%, data consistent with the rise of 26.1% in crude steel production) and automotive (+ 16.2%).
In fact, the automotive sector was one of the most dynamic in November by producing 46,490 units, according to ADEFA, the highest level for the same month since 2016 (+ 71.6% vs. 2019 and + 42.7% vs. 2020).
Meanwhile, the accumulated production of the first eleven months was 31.5% higher compared to the same period of 2019 and 74% higher than in 2020.
The production of machinery and equipment also grew strongly (+ 33.7% in October compared to the same period in 2019, driven above all by the agricultural segment (+ 102.2%), which registered its third highest level in the series, driven by bank credit and that of household appliances (+ 34.1%).
The iron and steel industryAccording to data from the Chamber of Steel, in November it reached the highest level of production for that month since 2017, had a growth of 26.1% compared to November 2019 and, in accumulated terms, represented an increase of 3% in so far in 2021.
In terms of investments, in October imports of capital goods grew 11.3% compared to the same month of 2019 and 24.9% compared to 2020, hand in hand with construction that grew 7.3% compared to October 2019 (+ 8.3% year-on-year).
On the external front, the trade balance in October confirmed for the tenth consecutive month the surplus in the balance of payments, this time it was US $ 1,601 million thanks to the fact that exports grew by 16.3% compared to the same period of 2019 and imports, 27.3%.
By item, foreign sales of primary products grew by 14.1% compared to 2019, those of agricultural manufactures, 13.2%, and those of industrial manufactures, 18.6%.
Regarding consumption, real sales in constant prices with Now 12 reached $ 122,996 million in November, second highest level of sales of the entire registry and higher than those of the same month of 2020 and 2019 by 12.6% and 22.4% respectively.
In terms of employment, the number of registered workers increased by 71,200 in September compared to August in the measurement without seasonality (+ 0.6%, its ninth increase in a row) thanks to the contribution of the private sector with 19,600 employees (+0, 3%), the public at 7,600 (+ 0.2%), monotributistas (+ 2.3%) and monotributistas social (+ 1.7%), while that of the self-employed (-0.1%) ). The clothing and footwear sector reached its fifth consecutive increase compared to October 2019 (+ 14.6% vs. 2019) and the highest level in three years in the seasonally adjusted measurement.
On the other hand, non-metallic minerals had a rise of 10.7% compared to October 2019 due to increases in cement, clay and ceramic products. In chemicals, for its part, the sector registered the eighth consecutive rise, and was placed 2.3% above October 2019.
According to Indec, In the third quarter of the year, GDP was 1.6% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2019, with the sectors of commerce (+ 10.8%), manufacturing industry (+ 8.3%) and construction (+ 4.3%) as the most dynamic.
In the international comparison, of a total of 31 countries with information so far, the recovery of the Argentine GDP is in the middle of the table up, in position 13 in economic performance when comparing between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the third of 2021.
“The relative improvement of Argentina compared to other countries is largely explained by what happened in the manufacturing industry, which in the first ten months of 2021 grew 5.5% compared to 2019,” said the CEP XXI report.
