MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 28th 2024 - 12:40 UTC

 

 

Argentine construction industry contracts 7.5% in April and 10.3% in four months

Thursday, June 6th 2019 - 08:41 UTC
Full article 1 comment
For companies in the private sector, 54% of those interviewed anticipated that activity will continue to fall during the coming months For companies in the private sector, 54% of those interviewed anticipated that activity will continue to fall during the coming months

The construction industry in Argentina contracted 7.5% last April, the eighth consecutive month, with an overall drop of 10.3% in the first four months of the year. According to the country's stats office Indec, the Indicator of Construction Activity, during April fell 0.3% from March.

A poll among builders and the industry shows that recession is expected to continue between May and July.

For companies in the private sector, 54% of those interviewed anticipated that activity will continue to fall during the coming months, and among those companies with government contracts the negative feeling reached 57.1%

Only 6% of those working for the private sector and 4.8% for the public sector said they expect a pickup in activity while the rest believe the current level will remain stagnant.

Those who anticipate diminishing activity mainly blame the overall recession, lack of credit, and demanded price stability and the reopening of the mortgage lending, points out Indec.

However construction permits for private undertakings in the sixty most active and representative boroughs of Argentina increased 16.2% during April on an annual basis, and 36.5% over the previous month.

As to inputs for the construction industry during the month of April on an annual basis, they all suffered a decrease: floors and wall coverings, down 22.5%; sanitary artifacts, 16.8%; mosaics 16.3%; plaster walling, 15.4%; bricks, 8.4%; asphalt, 7.7%; paints, 6.7%; iron, steel and cement, 6%.

But despite the discouraging outlook, government sources said the industry will soon bounce back given the increase in construction permits in the private sector, which normally anticipates an overall rebound with six months anticipation.

Categories: Economy, Argentina.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • Enrique Massot

    Nobody is a winner in Macri's Argentina unless it's a close friend, family member or associate of the gang in power.

    The 'deficit zero' goal imposed by the IMF keeps contracting the economy while inflation continues to fester, as Christine Lagarde has 'just learned.'

    However, with the help of the IMF money, president Mauricio Macri is beginning to implement measures designed to make Argentines feel the crisis is ending -- similar to those implemented before the legislative elections of November 2017.

    ANSES, the agency in charge of pensions, will be granting loans to retirees. The risk to the government is zero, because the ANSES will deduct up to 30 per cent of each monthly payment until the loan is paid back.

    The other initiative is to subsidize car sales through a direct subsidy. Some planned increases in public services will be held off until...you guessed...December 2019.

    It looks like Macri does know what to do to alleviate some of the pain and suffering.

    Wouldn't it be nice if this would be taken place more than just four months before each election?

    Jun 06th, 2019 - 07:09 pm -1
Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!