October 28, 2015

In September, industrial production increased 0.2% over the same month last year. The reading was below the 0.6% expansion seen in the previous month and marked smallest gain since May. September’s result was mainly driven by slight increases in the production of textiles and tobacco.



On a monthly basis, industrial production contracted 0.8% in seasonally-adjusted terms, which followed the 0.2% decrease seen in August and marked a nine-month low. The annual average variation in industrial production advanced from minus 1.2% in August to minus 1.0% in September, which marked the highest reading since March 2014.

LatinFocus Consensus Forecast panel participants expect that industrial production will decrease 1.0% in 2015, which is up 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2016, the panel expects industrial production to increase 2.3%.