Economic activity will slow down in February, while the economic climate will improve in March

The indicator of economic activity, which reflects the development of the economy, increased between January and March on an annual basis, while the indicator of economic climate, based on surveys of companies, increased between January and April, INE said this Thursday.

According to the “Síntese Económica de Conjuntura” of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), “the indicator of economic activity, which summarizes a set of quantitative indicators reflecting the evolution of the economy, increased year on year between January and March, more intensively in January, after decreasing in November and December and a significant slowdown in September and October.”

In turn, the economic climate indicator, which summarizes questions related to qualitative company surveys, increased between January and April.

“Short-term economic activity data in terms of manufacturing available for March point to a nominal slowdown in manufacturing and services, as well as a real slowdown in manufacturing and an acceleration in construction,” INE said.

In terms of spending, “the measure of economic activity grew less strongly in March, with a decrease in the measure of investment and an acceleration in the measure of private consumption.”

According to INE, the industrial producer price index “showed a negative annual trend (-0.9%) in April, which has not been seen since February 2021 after rising by 8.9% and 0.1% in February and March.” after a continuous slowdown observed since July 2022.”

“The ‘energy’ grouping was decisive for the decline of the overall index with rates of -21.5% and -17.9% in March and April, respectively,” he clarifies, adding that excluding the energy component, this index slowed down to 4.7% (8.1% in March).

As for the consumer goods index, it recorded an annualized change of 9.9% (11.6% in the previous month), “slowing down for the fifth month in a row, after reaching a maximum value in the series in November (16.2%). )”.

In turn, the annual change in the consumer price index (CPI) slowed to 5.7% in April, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous month, with the index related to unprocessed foods slowing down. change from 19.3% year on year in March to 14.2% in April.

On the outside, hidden prices of exports and imports of goods in March recorded fluctuations of 4.8% and -2.2% respectively (7.1% and 4.4% in February).

The unemployment rate was 7.2% in the first quarter of 2023, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter (5.9% in the first quarter of 2022), according to the INE Employment Survey.

The number of unemployed increased by 23.3% year on year (an annual change of 3.7% in the previous quarter), while the labor underutilization rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than in the fourth quarter, at 12%. .5% and covers 680.7 thousand people (633.1 thousand in the previous quarter).

Total employment increased 0.4% qoq and 0.5% y/y (0.5% y/y change in Q4), hours actually worked increased y/y. by 3.4% (a 4.6% change in the previous quarter) and the active population grew by 1.8% year on year.