The country’s manufacturing activity grew 46.2% in May

In May 2021, industrial activity was practically paralyzed due to the blockades and the national strike. For this reason, when the behavior of the sector is measured in the same month, a year later, the increase is 46.2% according to the report delivered by Dane.

(Read: Entrepreneurs warn about the increase in prices of raw materials).

The other variables showed improvement: the actual sales of this activity reached 45.5% and employed personnel increased 5.9%.

According to the report, beverage manufacturing was the activity that presented the greatest positive contribution to the real production of the manufacturing industry with a annual variation of 43.3%, contributing 5.1 pp. to the total annual variation (46.2%).
For its part, leather tanning and retanning; retanning and dyeing of skins presented the lowest contribution (0.0 pp), with a variation of 25.2%.

In relation to the employed personnel, Manufacture of garments, with a variation of 8.1%, was the domain that contributed the most positively (0.7 pp) to the total annual variation (5.9%), followed by the manufacture of plastic products, with a variation of 5.8% and a contribution of 0.4 pp

When comparing the performance of industrial activity compared to the month of May 2019, before the pandemic, real production rose 16.6%, while sales increased 14.8% three-yearly (2022 vs 2019) while the employed personnel rose by 0.5%.

The director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, stressed that if the drop in economic activity due to the pandemic was not taken into account and the production values ​​in May 2019 and the same period in 2022 were compared, the average effective annual growth rate was 5.25%, which shows the capacity of this activity to mitigate the effects of the health crisis.

For the year to May compared to the first five months of 2021, the real production of the manufacturing industry increased 18.4% and actual sales 18.5%. Employed personnel increased 4.8% compared to the same period in 2021.

During the last twelve months to May 2022, in the national total, the real production of the manufacturing industry and real sales increased 17.2%, while employed personnel increased 5.0%.

On the performance of the industry in May, the president of the National Association of Entrepreneurs of Colombia, Andi, Bruce MacMaster He commented that although the current figures versus those of 2021 show the impact of the national strike, they are also evidence of the capacity of the productive apparatus to recover and also of the reactivation path it has taken.

This, he explained, is also noticeable when comparing pre-pandemic figures.
“It is a commitment of all to continue working to consolidate the growth registered this year and that these indicators are reflected in more job opportunities, in all lines of the economy. However, achieving this will depend largely on the country being able to provide legal stability. and that the new government transmits the signs of calm necessary to encourage investment,” said the union leader.

Trade

The Dane also reported that retail sales grew 34.8% in May. Excluding the sale of fuel and vehicles, it reaches 23.2%. In this month, the personnel employed in retail and vehicle trade reflected a variation of 3.6% compared to the same period of the previous year.

(Also: Industrial production in Colombia grew 46.2% in May).

When comparing May 2022 with the same month in 2019, the variation in real sales in the sector was 20.7%. However, when comparing these periods, the variation in personnel was -1.4%. The report warns that in the fifth month of the year 2022, the 19 merchandise lines registered positive variations in their real sales.

In the first five months of the year, real retail sales growth stands at 18.4% compared to the same period in 2021. Without the sale of fuel or vehicles, it was 15.9%.

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