MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay's GDP grows 4.6% in first semester of 2024

A 3.7% drop in Electricity and Water in the first semester was not enough to counter positive performances in all other sectors

Paraguay's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) went up 4.6% in the first semester of 2024, according to a Central Bank (BCP) report released Monday in Asunción. The document also mentioned an interannual 4.8% surge in the second quarter of 2024, up from 4.3% in the previous quarter. Thus, Paraguay outperformed the 3.8% projections for the first half of this year.

 The year-on-year performance was driven by a positive performance in services, manufacturing, construction, livestock, and agriculture. However, poor electricity generation dragged the overall outcome. The BCP also found that agriculture registered a 1% year-on-year growth in the second quarter of 2024 for a 0.6% total at the end of the first half of the current year.

Livestock, Forestry, Fishing, and Mining presented a year-on-year increase of 5.4% from the same quarter of 2023, accumulating a growth of 5.1% in the first half of this year while manufacturing activity posted 5.8% year-on-year growth from the same quarter of last year. The accumulated variation at the end of the first semester 2024 reached +5.6%.

Construction recorded a 4.7% interannual increase in the second quarter of 2024, thus accumulating a 1.2% surge in the first half of the year while Services recorded a 6.2% yoy increase in the second quarter for an accumulated 5.6% growth in the first semester.

But Electricity and Water recorded an 8.6% contraction in the second quarter for an overall 3.7% drop.