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The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reveals that the industrial and construction sectors experienced significant year-on-year declines in July, marking a moment of substantial economic slowdown. This contraction reflects the vulnerability of national productive activity in an environment of uncertainty, where general manufacturing shows cumulative stagnation and construction faces its fourth consecutive decline, evidencing a sustained slowdown in job creation and value-added generation in these key pillars of the local economy. The disruption is not uniform: while numerous subsectors such as machinery, vehicles, and basic goods saw their production contract, others like textiles and footwear achieved notable gains. However, construction displays a more complex dynamic: although prices of essential inputs such as cement and steel fell, costs of materials like asphalt and glass increased, generating asymmetric inflationary pressures. This mix of rising and falling input costs complicates business planning and contributes to unfavorable expectations that foresee a continuation of the downturn in activity in the coming months. This report is relevant to the open data movement because it underscores the vitality of official public statistics as a foundation for critical analysis and accountability. By breaking down sectoral data and expectation surveys, INDEC provides the transparency necessary for civil society, researchers, and the media to audit the real impact of macroeconomic policies. These open data enable the identification of structural causes of the crisis, such as inflation and price instability, facilitating an informed debate on the measures required to revitalize economic activity and manage fiscal challenges.

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Published on 2023-09-09

Open Data

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