INEI: Economy contracts 1.43% in May, its lowest rate in the year

The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) reported that national production fell 1.43% in May 2023, after two months of growth. In the fifth month of the year the economy was affected by the conditions of The Coastal Childof moderate magnitude, and rainfall above normal in the northern and central coast, as well as in the north-western highlands and northern jungle of the country. Manufacturing (-15.59%), construction (-11.04%), finance and insurance (-9.87%), fishing (-70.60%), agriculture (-6.18%) and telecommunications (- 6.83%) were the sectors that closed in red.

On the other side, mining and hydrocarbons (16.74%), commerce (3.15%), electricity, gas and water (5.72%), transportation (2.07%), accommodation and restaurants (3.94%) , services provided to companies (1.56%) and other services (3.39%) were the sectors that did have a positive performance.

It should be noted that national production in the period from January to May 2023 decreased by 0.49% and during the last twelve months, from June 2022 to May 2023, it presented an increase of 1.04%.

Fishing, the sector that fell the most

The fishing sector decreased by 70.60% as a result of the lower extraction of species of maritime origin (-76.15%), mainly in the indirect human consumption category (anchovy for fishmeal and fish oil), extracting 7,620 tonscompared to 1 million 069,431 tons in May 2022.

In that month, the fishing season was carried out in the north-central and southern areas; while, in May of this year, fishing was only carried out in the southern zone (with less availability of anchovy), to which temperatures higher than their average value were added.

On the contrary, fishing for direct human consumption grew (4.28%) explained by the higher landing of species for fresh consumption (22.9%) and for curing preparation (10.9%). On the other hand, fishing of continental origin grew by 5.81%.