Industry breaks four months of progress

Last February, industrial activity in Mexico contracted 1% compared to January, reflecting the weakness of three of its four pillars, which broke a four-month streak of progress, reported yesterday the National Institute of Geography and Statistics ( Inegi).

Mining was the most affected line, showing a decline of 6.6%, which practically canceled the advance of 6.4% that it had shown in January. It was followed by construction, which followed two months of falls and made one of 1.5%; and public services (electricity, gas and water), which contracted 0.9% after having a meager advance of 0.1% in January. Manufacturing, for its part, showed an advance of 0.6% and string five months of advances. Of a total of 21 branches, 14 showed advances, the most notable being those of the furniture branch (9.8%), metal products (4.9%), beverages and tobacco (3.7 percent).

In biannual comparisons, industrial activity was 2.8% lower in February compared to the same month in 2020, prior to the suspension of non-essential economic activities to slow the advance of Covid-19.

Construction is the line that lags the most compared to pre-pandemic levels, followed by mining and public services; meanwhile, manufacturing exhibits an improvement of 0.9 percent. “Construction could remain depressed for the next several months. To boost this sector, it will be important to strengthen infrastructure investment agreements between the public and private sectors. It would be even more important to offer sufficiently solid conditions in the legal field so that the private sector can invest with confidence”, said Ricardo Aguilar Abe, economic analyst at Banco Invex, in a report.

empresas@eleconomista.mx