Argentina’s GDP grows 17.9 % inter-annual in the second quarter of 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina’s gross domestic product (GDP) registered in the second quarter of the year, a year-on-year recovery of 17.9 %, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) reported on Tuesday.

According to official data, Argentina has thus achieved two consecutive quarters of GDP growth in year-on-year terms, after the 9.9% plunge accumulated last year, amid the covid-19 pandemic.

The magnitude of the year-on-year recovery verified in the second quarter must be interpreted on an unprecedented basis of comparison. In the same period of 2020, GDP had suffered a historical plunge of 19%, affected by the severe sanitary restrictions imposed in Argentina.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Argentina

With this result, the Argentine economy accumulated in the first half of the year recovery of 10.3%.

However, official data released on Tuesday revealed that in the second quarter of the year, Argentina’s GDP contracted by 1.4% compared to the first quarter of 2021, the first setback after three consecutive quarters of growth.

This contraction is framed by the new restrictions issued by the Government during the second quarter to cope with the second wave of covid-19.

According to the draft Budget, 2022 sent last week to Parliament by the Executive of Alberto Fernández, the Argentine economy would end this year with a recovery of 8%, ending a three-year cycle of a severe recession. It would grow by 4% in 2022.

Meanwhile, private economists consulted monthly by the Argentine Central Bank for its expectations report project that the Argentine economy will recover 7.2 % in 2021 and expand 2.5 % next year.