Investment in the Norte Grande fell almost 90%
A report published by Politikon Chaco Consulting revealed that the real direct investment of the State in the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires, between January and May 2024, totaled around $90,918 million, experiencing a drop of 84.4% in real terms . In the case of the Norte Grande, the decrease was even more pronounced, since real direct investment fell by 87.6%. Among the provinces with the lowest volume of public investment are Misiones, with a drop of 95.6%; Formosa with a decrease of 96.4%, and La Rioja with a drop of 99.0% in real terms.
In the ten provinces of this region, the real direct investment of the national State, from January to May of this year, was $11,025 million, compared to $22,463 million for the same period in 2023, which represents a contraction of 60% year-on-year. nominal.
Among the provinces of the Norte Grande, heterogeneous results are observed: Jujuy stood out by registering an increase of 52.9% in real terms, mainly due to the low comparative base of 2023. On the other hand, decreases were observed in the remaining nine provinces. significant, such as the case of Santiago del Estero, which showed the smallest decrease (-55.2%) and La Rioja, which showed the strongest (-99.0%).
In terms of volume, Jujuy was the province with the highest level of real direct national investment, with $3,075 million executed, followed by Chaco with $2,557 million and Catamarca with $1,321 million. However, in these last two cases, the real falls compared to the same period of the previous year were significant, and reached 73.9% and 59.0%, respectively.
The impact on Construction
The work carried out by the Consultant detected that the “Constructions” category, which represents 67% of real direct investment, suffered a real decrease of 86% year-on-year. This information emerges as a consequence of the national government’s decision to paralyze public works, as one of the tools to achieve fiscal balance.
According to the report: “The peak decline is observed in January 2024 with -95.3% and, except for February (-74.1%), in the rest of the months of the year the decline was greater than the real interannual -80%.” .
The crisis reached registered employment
During March 2024, employment registered in the private sector showed a monthly decrease of 0.4%, which represents the seventh consecutive drop. This decline is equivalent to the loss of 23,012 jobs in the national territory compared to the previous month. In this sense, in the Norte Grande (composed of Formosa, Catamarca, Chaco, Corrientes, Jujuy, Misiones, Salta, La Rioja, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán), the performance was somewhat more moderate with a drop of 0.2%, which represents a loss of 1,584 jobs compared to the previous month.
