Argentina’s Economy Recovery Slows To a Crawl in December

(Bloomberg) -- Argentina’s economic recovery sputtered out in December, tallying its worst month since the start of the pandemic.

Economic growth month-over-month slowed to a crawl of 0.9% growth, down from 1.4% in November. After a short-lived bounce-back from the pandemic in May, the country still tallied an annual descent of 2.2% from December 2019, according to government data published Wednesday.

The decline has been driven largely by hotels and restaurants, which recorded a dramatic 47% drop on an annual basis -- by far the hardest hit sector. The slide was further pushed by transportation and social activities, with both sectors registering double-digit drops year-over-year.

Argentina likely contracted 10.9% for all of last year, according to a central bank survey, which would be in line with the country’s worst annual drop on record. Economists surveyed by the central bank expect South America’s second largest economy to grow 5.5% this year, though on a quarterly basis activity is projected to be below 1% in the first half of this year.

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