In April 2020, national economic production decreased 40.49% from the same month in 2019, while production activity contracted 13.1% between January and April this year and shrank 2.63% at an annualized pace in May 2019-April 2020, the
National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) reported on Monday.
According to INEI, this result is explained by the cessation of most economic activities, in view of the
health emergency and
mandatory social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation that had an unfavorable effect on the productive capacity of the economy.
In addition, it affected the main components of
domestic demand, such as household consumption —reflected in a drop in retail sales (-66.35%) and imports of non-durable consumption goods (-8.63%), as well as investment in construction (-89.72%).
Likewise, the situation had a negative impact on external demand (-49.38%) due to lower
exports of non-traditional and traditional products.
The production index performance in April 2020 (-40.49%) was determined by a drop in most production sectors such as commerce; manufacture; construction; mining and hydrocarbons; transport, storage and communications; accommodation and restaurants; as well as services provided to companies.
These productive sectors contributed 82% to Peru's overall growth in such month.
However, finance and insurance, farming, as well as public administration and defense sectors witnessed a positive performance.
The April 2020 decline was influenced by lower production in primary (-26.78%), secondary (-66.69%) and services (-36.91%) sectors, which also experienced a negative growth of 9.53%, 25.6%, and 10.18% —respectively— in the first four months of 2020.
(END) CAN/RMB/MVB
Published: 6/15/2020