The SME industry grew 2.4% year-on-year in March

The production of the SME manufacturing industry grew 2.4% in March compared to the same month last year, at constant prices. However, in the month-on-month comparison (against February 2023), activity remained unchanged, according to a report by the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME). The SME industry works in a context of high uncertainty given the macroeconomic instability and in a productive scheme of import administration. However, in the first quarter of the year the industry accumulates an increase of 5.2% compared to the same quarter of 2022.For its part, the use of the installed capacity of the companies in the sample rose to 73.3%, 1.6 percentage points above February (71.7%). By sectors, the highest levels were found in “Paper and Printing” (82.4%), and the lowest in “Metal, Machinery and Equipment, and Transport Material”, and in “Chemicals and Plastics”, both with 69.9%. On the other hand, sectors such as producers of chemicals, plastics or metalworking, register a high dynamism in terms of their investments. Most of these SMEs are financing themselves with their own resources, and find that, in this context, the best option is to quickly reinvest profits in the same company. The data are derived from the SME Industrial Production Index (IPIP) prepared by CAME, with a sample that reached some 384 SME industries at the federal level.

Original source in Spanish