The manufacturing industry of small and medium-sized enterprises in Argentina, SMEs,
contracted 9.9% in February
compared to the same month last year, and they express "uncertainty" over the Government's decision to open imports.
This is revealed by a report from the
Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME)
, which carried out a survey reflecting a third consecutive month in which manufacturing activity falls.
However, the document maintains that "it lowered the rate after having
fallen between 27% and 30% in December and January
, respectively."
Furthermore, in the monthly, seasonally adjusted comparison, "a decrease of 7.7% was recorded and in the accumulated amount of the year, activity fell 21.7%."
"What was most worrying in February were
the cost increases
, especially in services and fuels. The industries consulted expressed the difficulties involved in translating these increases into prices in the current context. At the same time,
there is uncertainty about the impact that the opening of imports in some sectors
," the report maintains.
The data comes from the SME Industrial Production Index (IPIP) prepared by CAME, with a sample that reached 413 SME industries at the federal level, where it details that the companies operated in February with 70.9% of their installed capacity, maintaining the levels of January (70.8%).
"Although 32.7% of industries continue to report problems replenishing stock, they are much smaller scale difficulties than previous months," they add.
News in development.