Mexico’s industrial activity experienced a 4.5% growth in September, as reported by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
It’s a big jump from the 4.38% growth in August 2023. This growth is 8.9% more than before the pandemic in February 2020.
Construction led this increase in September, growing by 19.5%. The second biggest growth was in electricity, water, and natural gas supply, says Inegi.
This sector grew by 7.2%. Manufacturing and mining had smaller growths of 1.2% and 0.8%.
Month to month, the industry grew by just 0.2% from August 2023. This is the seventh month of growth in a row.
It’s been 31 months of positive growth in total. But, this small increase might mean growth is slowing down.
It could stop by the end of the year. The last time growth was this low was in February 2023. Then, the industry shrank by 0.18% from January.
Manufacturing is very important for Mexico’s exports. It helps Mexico be a big trading partner with the USA.
This is true even more now as China’s imports have dropped. However, electricity, water, and gas supply decreased by 0.2% from the previous month.
Mining and construction did better. They grew by 1% and 4.1%. The growth in September was mainly because of manufacturing.
Biggest Monthly Grow
This sector had its biggest monthly growth since December 2021. Back then, it grew by 1.8%.
The car industry is a big part of this. It makes up a quarter of Mexico’s exports.
The best-performing manufacturing areas in September were transport equipment (up 6.6%), beverages and tobacco (up 5.7%), and textiles (up 4.4%).
From January to September 2023, the industrial sector grew by 3.72% in total. This is a bit less than the 5.36% growth in the same months in 2022.
This pattern is like the growth of Mexico’s overall economy. Its GDP grew by 3.3% in the third quarter of this year.