Colombian economy contracted 4.53% in October: Dane

The National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) reported that, during October, the Economic Monitoring Index (ISE) reported that the Colombian economy had an annual fall of 4.53%.

The director of the entity, Juan Daniel Oviedo, explained that the greatest impact is still being recorded in tertiary activities, such as commerce, accommodation and food services,

“As has been natural throughout the pandemic, tertiary activities are the ones that most contribute to the contraction, with -1.8 percentage points (pps), corresponding to 40% of the contraction of the economy in October.

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Meanwhile, primary activities, such as agriculture and mining and quarrying, continue to have a relevant impact due to the dynamics of the economy and the annual variation was -9.5%. However, he stressed that, month by month, since the second semester, better figures and a gradual recovery have been presented.

“The mixture of agricultural activities and the exploitation of mines and quarries contributed 1.1 pps negative of the contraction,” he said.

Specifically, coal falls about 60%; Oil falls from 883,000 barrels produced per day in October 2019 to 749,000 units in October 2020, that is, -14.9%.

Secondary activities, which weigh 20% of the economy, contributed 1.6 pps in the October contraction and are explained by an annual decrease of -8.1%. The impact is still evidenced by manufacturing and construction, which corresponds to a fifth of the fifth part of the contraction in April, when it was -43.6%.

“There is also a construction correction of about 16% and it is much smaller than that of September, which was 43%. We can give, if not well with precision, that -8.1% of secondary schools see an improvement month a month. -12.9% in September and -14.5% in August, “commented Oviedo.