This Friday the Dane delivered the first report for 2023 of the Indicator of Follow-up to the Economy (ISE), which reported an annual variation of 5.8% in January, a figure that reversed the negative trend that the indicator had had for almost six months, and showed that at the start of the year economic activity showed positive figures.
(Economic activity grew 5.8% in January, according to Dane).
In addition, for the month of January 2023, the ISE showed an inter-monthly growth of 2.57%, compared to the month of December 2022, when reviewing the data in the series adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects.
As defined by Dane, the ISE is a synthetic index whose purpose is to provide a measure of the evolution of real activity in the economy in the short term.
The three groups of activities that the Dane measures, primary, secondary and tertiary, presented growth in the first month of the year, both in their annual dynamics, and in comparison with the indicators of December 2022.
Primary activities, which include agriculture and the exploitation of mines and quarries, and which had been performing even negatively for several months, showed slight growth in the first month of 2023, with a growth of 0.56% compared to the same month of 2022.
(Keys so that the country’s economy does not slow down so strongly).
In relation to the month-on-month growth of the group, it showed an expansion of 1.18% compared to December 2022. Primary activities have an approximate weight of 18% in the national economy.
For January 2023, the index of secondary activities (manufacturing and construction) presented a growth of 2.68% in its original series, and in terms of monthly data, the performance was 2.15%. They represent almost 13% of the national economy.
Finally, the group of tertiary activities, the one that has the greatest weight in the economy (around 70%) and includes service activities, showed growth of 7.46% in the first month of the year. And the inter-monthly variation was 1.31% in the group.
Within these, The branch that includes the supply of electricity, gas, water distribution and sanitation activities reported an annual variation of 2% in January. In the case of commerce, vehicle repair, transportation, accommodation, and food services, the variation was 2.1%.
Other activities in this group are information and communications, which presented an expansion of 2.4%, while financial and insurance activities grew 63.3% in relation to January 2022.
It is worth remembering that a year ago, this item saw a significant drop on the insurance side, due to the payment that Mapfre had to make to Hidroituango, which explains the statistical rebound.
In the case of real estate activities, the ISE variation was 1.8%, while in professional, scientific and technical activities and administrative and support services the performance was 3.7%.
(Meetings, projects and economic events of 2023 in Colombia).
The group that includes both public administration and defense, education and health, as well as other services such as artistic, entertainment and recreation activities had a variation of 6.8%.
Despite these figures, the director of the Colombian American Chamber of Commerce, AmCham Colombia, María Claudia Lacouture, commented that while the ISE in January of this year was 5.85%, for January of last year the variation in the indicator was 8.51%.
“The figures reaffirm that the economy is in a pause process. Although the moderation was expected, actions must be generated jointly to prevent the setback from directly affecting the basic consumption of households, the generation of employment and even that inflation remains high with the impact it has on low-income families. ”said Lacouture.
