Government admitted in report Argentina has slowest recovery in region after pandemic

Argentina’s economy is the slowest recovering economy compared to the rest of the region, according to information compiled by the national government. Around the second quarter of the year, economic activity was still 5% behind this same period of 2019, before the health crisis, which implies the worst figure among the countries surveyed by the Ministry of Productive Development in a report. recent.

According to a study by the Center for Production Studies (CEP XXI), depending on this portfolio, the Argentine economy has been the most affected by the impact of the coronavirus compared to most countries on the continent. Paraguay, the United States and most of the economies of Central America are already even with a higher level of activity than they recorded before the health crisis.

“In June, Argentina’s economy recovered much of what it lost in April and May 2021 by posting an increase of 2.5% per month. After a month of expanding health measures, economic activity picked up in June, in large part due to the recovery in industry and trade. In this way, the gap based on pre-pandemic levels narrowed to 2.2%», Considered the report of the productive portfolio.

This is one of the two ways that the work proposed to measure the performance of economic activity at this stage of exit from the pandemic. On the one hand, These 2.2% show what is the difference in production volume between June of this year and February 2020, that is, the last full month without the impact of the coronavirus. Social isolation measures in Argentina began in the last days of March.

In a brief reference to the Argentine economy, the report on economic activity indicators in the region mentions that in June (latest official data) “the Argentine economy has slowed down its decline from 2019 levels (-2 , 1%, +7, 1 percentage points compared to the variation of the previous month) and kept the growth rates in double digits in year-on-year comparison (10.8%). At the sector level, 9 of the 15 activities decreased on the basis of 2019 and the majority increased compared to 2020, with the exception of agriculture and financial intermediation, ”he explained.

According to a study by the Center for Production Studies (CEP XXI), the Argentine economy has been the most affected by the impact of the coronavirus compared to most countries on the continent

Post-Covid recovery: Argentina at the bottom of the table

According to the information of most of the economies of the continent compiled by CEP XXI, Argentina occupies the last place either by taking as a reference the monthly data (the aforementioned difference of 2.2% between June 2021 and February 2020) or to considerr the total data for the second quarter of the year compared to these three months of 2019.

In the latest ranking, the Argentine economy is still in last position since its level of activity was in the second quarter of 2021 5% less than that of this period of 2019. With this same metric, it follows Mexico is 2.4% behind, and Ecuador (-2%), Colombia (-1.4%) and Canada continue with -0.9%..

At the other end, Paraguay is the one experiencing the fastest post-pandemic recovery: its economic activity is already 5.8% higher than two years ago, and Guatemala (4.9%), the Dominican Republic ( 4.3%) are also on this path.), Honduras (3.2%), El Salvador (2.5%), United States (2%), Costa Rica (1.4%) and Chile ( 1.3%).

The ranking of the countries changes little if we take into account the data between June 2021 and February 2020. In this case, the -2.2% recorded by the Argentine economy places it again in last position, with Ecuador. Canada and Mexico are 1.5% behind the pre-pandemic period and other countries still have minor declines such as El Salvador (-0.5%), Costa Rica (-0.4%), Peru (-0.3%) and Colombia (-0.2%). Countries like Uruguay or Bolivia are not included because they do not have official monthly activity data.

As reflected Infobae, the recovery of Argentine economic activity is not yet reflected with this proportion on the labor market. While some productive sectors are already operating at higher levels than before the pandemic, last year the economy only reintegrated 54% of formal private sector workers who lost their jobs during the quarantine months. More Strict.

In the March and July 2020 phase, when the social isolation measures were more severe, 191,000 private jobs were lost. Over the next twelve months, that is to say until June 2021, according to the latest official data, some 103,000 jobs were rebuilt, measured the Ministry of Labor.

There are areas of the economy in which the labor situation remains considerably degraded. In this group are, for example, Hotels and restaurants (-22.2%), Community, social and personal services (-4.7%), Construction (-4.6%) and Mines and quarries (-3.8%), among others.

On the other hand, six sectors currently employ more people than before the health crisis: Fishing (4.6%), Real estate, rental and commercial activities (3.4%), Manufacturing industry (2.1%), Health (1.5%), Electricity, gas and water distribution ( 0.7%) and Agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and forestry (0.2%).

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