Bruce Mac Master warns about the need to counteract the effects of the decline in the country’s industrial production.
Bruce Mac Master, president of the National Association of Businessmen of Colombia (Andi), expressed his concern about the economic slowdown that the country is going through.
“The country has accumulated nine months of deterioration in indicators of demand, production, sales and business climate, which point to the necessary and urgent creation of a strategy that promotes economic growth in the short and long term,” said the union leader.
Mac Master stressed the importance of taking concrete actions to counteract the effects of the slowdown and the already evident decrease observed in the third quarter of the year. According to his estimates, the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this year could be just 1%, a figure that he considers “insufficient” for progress in the country’s social indicators.
It is worth remembering that the national GDP experienced a drop of 0.3% in the third quarter of this year, consolidating the slowdown trend that has manifested throughout the year.
Mac Master’s statements coincide with the publication of the Joint Industrial Opinion Survey for September, which showed the slowdown of the Colombian economy between January and September. During this period, production decreased by 3.3%, while actual sales decreased by 3.4%. Sales to the domestic market fell 4.1%.
The president of Andi pointed out that, among the main difficulties reported by companies to develop investment projects, are interest rates (20.6%), uncertainty due to reforms and political instability (18.7%), low demand (17.2%), the exchange rate (12.4%) and economic uncertainty (12%), among other factors.
Mac Master’s statements highlight the urgency of implementing effective strategies that boost economic growth and counteract the current trend of slowdown in Colombian industrial production.