Economy grows 0.22% in March and confirms fall of 0.43% in the first quarter

National production grew 0.22% in March; however, it accumulated a drop of -0.43% in the first quarter of 2023, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) in the technical report National Production.

He construction sectorin the first three months of the year, led the fall and fell -11.48%, only in March it decreased -12.42% due to the lower dynamism of internal cement consumption (-15.33%) and the physical progress of public works (-3.00%).

“The reduction in internal cement consumption was caused by the lower progress in private works and self-construction, accumulating seven months of unfavorable results. The contractive performance of the physical progress of works was observed in the local government sphere (-30.5%) ; however, it rose in the National (56.9%) and Regional (2.0%),” said the INEI.

For his part, he agricultural sector it fell by 2.56% in March, achieving an accumulated contraction of -0.17%. This is due to the result of agricultural subsector (-3.7%), due to the lower production of paprika (-44.1%), green bean (-35.2%), onion (-28.5%), corn (-23.1%) ), potato (-19.6%), asparagus (-19.0%) and alfalfa (-5.0%).

Meanwhile, the livestock subsector contracted by 0.89%, explained by the lower volumes produced of eggs (-2.6%), poultry (-1.3%), fresh milk (-0.7%) and sheep (-0.2%) ).

The sector manufacture it also fell 0.27% in March and 0.33% in the first months. This as a result of the lower activity of the non-primary subsector (-7.05%); however, the activity of the primary subsector increased (28.78%).

Sectors with positive performance

The production of mining and hydrocarbons grew by 9.28% in March and achieved a cumulative advance of 2.50% due to the advancement of metal mining activity (8.70%), due to higher production volumes of copper (19.9%), molybdenum ( 7.1%), iron (14.0%), gold (1.0%) and lead (1.5%); however, the production of zinc (-23.8%), tin (-48.5%) and silver (-2.0%) contracted.

Likewise, the performance of the hydrocarbons subsector increased by 12.66% due to the higher level of exploitation of crude oil (50.4%) and natural gas (15.3%); meanwhile, the production of natural gas liquids contracted (-3.6%).

Lastly, the trade sector it increased by 2.95% due to the development of its three large components: wholesale trade (3.06%); the sale and repair of vehicles (3.03%), influenced by a larger portfolio of makes and models; additionally, retail sales grew (2.64%) in the items of sale of new products in specialized stores, such as articles for electrical installations, electric, optical and topographic motors; pharmaceutical products and fuel sales in the retail channel (taps and self-service).