MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's industry keeps growing with pesos stronger against US dollars

The US dollar's downward trend has been reported in most parts of the region, except in Argentina

Uruguay's industrial production showed a 12.3% growth during the year 2021 when compared to 2020 levels, according to a report released Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

This positive performance is due in part to poor results in 2020 when it dropped 4.8%. But 2021's data also meant an improvent against 2019 figures, when it also fell 0.9%.

Food alone increased 14.5%, according to the study. In December of 2021, Uruguay's industry grew 11.3% as a whole compared to the same period in 2020 and 12.7% if oil refinery is removed from the equation.

Without taking into account oil refining by the state-run company Ancap, the pulp mills and Pepsi's production of soft-drink syrup, the rise was 13% on average annually, according to the Center for Economic Research (Cinve) and CPA Ferrere.

However, Ine also reported that the so-called “other manufacturing industries” fell 5.2% on average, with repairs and installation of machinery dropping 1.0%.

Meanwhile, the Uruguayan peso keeps growing against the US dollar. On Friday it recorded its tenth increase in a row, the longest streak in little over two years. The US dollar fell 0.31% Friday, trading at an average rate of US $ 1 / UR $ 43,047, a four-month nadir after hitting UR $43,034 Oct. 5.

When compared against Feb. 4, the US dollar fell 1.58% in a week. It is the biggest weekly fall in five and a half months, after a 1.61% setback between Aug. 23 and 27. The US currency also fell 2.51% in all of February and 3.69% in the year 2022.

The US dollar's downward trend has been reported in most parts of the region, except in Argentina, where things go the other way. In Brazil, it fell 0.22% Friday for a 2.96% drop in the month of February and 6.84% in the year 2022.