The Peruvian economy fell by 1.2% in the first month of the year due to social conflicts

In the first month of the year, the peruvian economy fell 1.12%, after showing 22 months of uninterrupted growth, since February 2021, reports the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI)through its technical report on national production.

The state entity explained that the economic activity of Peru it was impacted by the contraction of sectors such as Mining and Hydrocarbons; Construction; Transport, Storage and Messaging; Finance and Telecommunications. Of these five sectors, Construction is the one that contracted the most with 11.7% in January compared to the same month in 2022.

Still others productive sectors have increased such as accommodation and food services, fishing, trade, manufacturing, public administration, agriculture, electricity, business services and other services.

In view of this result, the HERE pointed out that the National production during the first month of the year was influenced by social conflicts which have led to work stoppages, roadblocks, forced closures of markets, impediments to the free movement of people and goods, which have occurred in certain regions of the country.

According to Mediator, there are 219 social conflicts in the country which have given rise to 1,261 collective protest actions. Note that out of 107 active socio-environmental conflicts Recorded in January this year, 71 cases correspond to conflicts related to mining.

According to the main components of the domestic demandthere investment in building recorded a drop of 11.70% and the household consumption, reflected in retail sales, reported a change of 2.02%, the statistical entity reported.

On the other hand, external demand contracted, reflected by a drop in exports (-27.97%) due to lower shipments of traditional products (-42.08%). There National production in the last twelve months, February 2022-January 2023, it showed an increase of 2.35%; while the seasonally adjusted index of national production for January 2023 recorded a variation of -1.36%, compared to the immediately preceding month.

Before this result, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alex Contrerasruled that the peruvian economy has been growing since March this year after the impact of the social protests accompanied by roadblocks, reported from December 2022 to January this year.

“The economy is recovering. December was a blow, as was January. In February the numbers are starting to show a recovery and in March we should again be showing growth above 2% and the target we have set for ourselves this year is to grow above 3%. We are taking action,” the official said.

Remember that this Tuesday, the Executive power introduced to Congress of the Republic the bill which proposes the approval of various additional appropriations for more than S/ 8.232 million to finance higher expenditures within the framework of the revival of the family economyregional and sectoral, as well as other authorizations to respond to critical requests.

However, the Executive power provides for the incorporation of 3,548 million shillings into the contingency reserve of the MEF to finance measures such as emergency care due to natural phenomena and other expenses which, by their nature, are unpredictable.