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The crisis caused by the expansion of the coronavirus in Colombia caused the worst result of industrial activity due to the confinement measures applied to fight the pandemic.
(Read: The sectors with the highest risk of job loss by Covid- 19)
A good number of companies adopted cuts in payroll and input spending, while cost pressure shot up coinciding with a weakening of the peso.
(Read: Security measures for the industry that begins to work this Monday)
This was confirmed by the seasonally adjusted Purchasing Management Index (PMI) of the Colombian industrial sector of Davivienda, which fell to an unprecedented minimum and reached 27.6 points in April, after reaching 49.3 in March, which marked a significant deterioration in business conditions in the industrial sector.
According to the PMI, production, new orders, employment and purchasing inventories fell to record lows in the fourth month. Similarly, the production levels of Colombian industrialists sank at the beginning of the second quarter.
The sharp slowdown began in late March, when the country adopted confinement measures in an attempt to slow down the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
In this context, the majority of respondents said that they had to close or operate at levels well below their capacity.
Thus, new orders received by manufacturers also fell significantly in April. The contraction rate was the most pronounced in the history of the survey, as customer demand was limited by preventive health measures.
