Argentina's economy grows by 5.2% last year
Argentina's INDEC statistics bureau reported that the nation's economy grew by 5.2% in 2022 - marking the first time in 11 years that GDP grew for two years in a row.
The Argentine economy, the third-largest in Latin America, posted a downturn in the fourth quarter however - with GDP sliding 1% in December, and 1.2% from a year earlier.
A near-doubling in inflation (95%) and central bank interest rates (75%) over the past year, led to a seasonally-adjusted 2.8% drop in monthly economic activity from August to December.
But annual GDP was up 4.6% from 2019 levels - after a foreign debt bubble under former President Mauricio Macri collapsed in April 2018, leading to a two-year "Macrisis."
Uneven recovery
Growth in 2022 was led by tourism (34.6%), mining and extraction (13.5%), recreational and other services (8.9%), and transport and communications (8.4%).
Retail and wholesale grew 6.1% - with online sales enjoying a 25.3% jump (the highest in the region).
Manufacturing was up 5.0% - with factories now running at their best pace since 2015, and auto and light truck output up 23.5% to 537,000.
Fixed investment in 2022 rose by 12.3% according to Orlando Ferreres, a top local macroeconomy consultant - to its highest level since 2017.
Only agriculture declined in 2022, down 3.9% amid severe drought.
Exports rose 13.5% to a record $88.4 billion last year, on higher prices (16%). But imports jumped 29%, to $81.5 billion - halving the nation's critical trade surplus to $6.9 billion.
The trade surplus might have fallen further - but for tighter import restrictions since Economy Minister Sergio Massa took office in August.
High inflation - a fixture of the Argentine economy for most of the past 75 years - was pushed up sharply by commodity price hikes brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and business uncertainty, with consumer prices up 94.8%.
Inflation and real wages, which fell 2.3%, have become a top re-election liability for center-left President Alberto Fernández: real pay has slipped 3% since taking office, after plunging 22% under Macri's 2015-19 term.
Worse yet, real wages for unregistered workers - over a third of Argentina's total, and a key voting bloc for the ruling Peronists - fell 15% last year, and are now over 40% below their 2015 high.
Job growth nevertheless remained strong, with 631,000 net registered new jobs created (equivalent to 4.5 million in the U.S.) and unemployment, at 7.1%, the lowest since 2015.
Macri-era debt looms large
For the third year running, central bank reserves did not recover - as much of the trade surplus must now service Argentina's $191 billion public foreign debt, which had doubled under Macri.
This includes $43 billion still owed to the IMF on a record, $45 billion bailout granted to Macri ahead of his failed, 2019 campaign - a bailout reportedly granted at the insistence of former President Donald Trump.
Argentina and the IMF refinanced the debt - some 29% of the IMF's outstanding loans, and the largest by far.
The agreement, which was supported by President Joe Biden, was lauded by economist Joseph Stiglitz as "not insisting, as (the IMF) usually does, on austerity - instead providing Argentina with room to continue its economic recovery."
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Residential high-rise construction goes up in Buenos Aires last November.
While Argentina's economy grew strongly for the year, higher inflation and interest rates led to a downturn in the last four months.
This trend has stifled re-election prospects for President Alberto Fernández, who inherited a debt crisis from right-wing predecessor (and Trump friend) Mauricio Macri - but who many Argentines see as having failed to deliver on 2019 campaign promises to recover living standards.
