Bogota. Retail trade and industry production in Colombia showed favorable increases in July, starting the second half on the right foot, figures from the National Statistics Department (DANE) revealed on Friday.
Retail sales increased by 8.5% year-on-year in July, a figure higher than 7.2% reported by the sector a month ago, favored by increases in 15 of the 16 merchandise lines, led by the commercialization of computer equipment , products for personal or domestic use and motor vehicles.
In the accumulated between January and July, retail sales rose 6.1% with respect to the same period of the previous year, DANE said in a statement.
In turn, the industrial production of the South American country increased 3.5% year-on-year in July, a much better figure than the 1.1% contraction it showed in June.
In the seventh month, 28 of the 39 industrial activities reported positive variations, led by the manufacture of bodies for vehicles and other types of transport equipment, as well as cocoa and confectionery products.
In the first seven months of the year, industrial production accumulated an increase of 1.8%, compared to the same period of 2018.
The figures play in favor of government expectations that the fourth economy of Latin America would accelerate its growth rate in the second part of the year, after which in the first half the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 3%.
The Government's goal is for the economy to grow this year by 3.6%, much higher than market projections, which on average expects 3.1%.
Source link
https://www.americaeconomia.com/economia-mercados/finanzas/comercio-e-industria-repuntan-en-colombia-e-inician-segundo-semestre-con
