LatinNews Daily - 20 September 2023

*Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released the latest figures on economic activity which show that the economy contracted by 4.9% in the second quarter of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022. In seasonally adjusted terms, Argentina’s economy contracted by 2.8% in the second quarter of the year as compared to the first quarter. The quarterly contraction was larger than had been expected, with a Bloomberg survey predicting a decrease of 2.5%. In yearly terms, the biggest increases were recorded in the hotels & restaurants (+6.4%) and mining (+6.3%) sectors. However, yearly decreases were recorded for other sectors, most notably in agriculture (-40.2%), which continues to reel from the impact of the historic drought that has hit Argentina this year, fishing (-30.5%), and electricity, gas & water (-6.3%). The contraction comes as annual inflation stood at 124.4% in August, the highest rate in three decades. The state of the economy is likely to impact the presidential candidacy of Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who is running for the ruling Unión por la Patria (UP) coalition in Argentina’s 22 October elections.