While fishing activity suffered a decline in the first month of 2024.

The Mining and Hydrocarbons sector of Peru increased by 3.96% in January 2024, compared to the same month of 2023, due to the expansion of the metal mining subsector (4.58%) and to a lesser extent due to the positive variation of the hydrocarbons subsector (0.57%), reported today the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics of the Andean country (INEI).

The positive performance of metallic mining activity was explained by the higher volume of production of gold (25.9%), silver (16.6%) and molybdenum (8.8%), mainly. Likewise, in the hydrocarbons subsector, due to the exploitation of crude oil (21.5%).

FISHING

The INEI indicated that the Fishing sector was reduced by 26.75% due to the lower extraction of species of maritime origin (-28.59%), destined for indirect human consumption (anchovy for fishmeal and fish oil), leading to the extraction 122,976 tons which, compared to 546,831 tons in January 2023, showed a reduction of 77.51%.

The anchovy extraction in January 2024 corresponded to the last section of the Second Fishing Season 2023 of the resource in the North-Central Zone of the Peruvian coast (end date January 12, 2024).

On the contrary, the landing for direct human consumption (29.99%), of species destined for canning (127%), for consumption in a fresh state (28.9%) and for frozen consumption (26.9%) showed positive performance. 4%); while, it decreased for curing preparation (-26.7%).

It was also reported that continental fishing fell by 7.26% due to the lower extraction of species for consumption in a fresh state and for the preparation of curing.

INVESTMENT BY THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT

During the month of analysis, the investment spending of the Peruvian government (2,169 million soles or US$ 567 million) grew by 136.84%, compared to the month of January 2023, supported by the increase in investment in construction and machinery and team, in the three levels of government (national, regional and local).

In January 2024, the Peruvian government's consumer spending, in nominal terms, totaled 8,965 million soles (US$ 2,343 million) and showed a growth of 16.6%, when compared to the same month of the previous year.

CREDITS

The INEI indicated that, in January 2024, consumer loans stood at 73,383 million soles (US$ 19,186 million), registering an increase of 5.72%, compared to the same month of the previous year. In addition, mortgage loans amounted to 63,688 million soles (US$ 16,651 million), reporting an increase of 5.19% compared to January 2023.

On the contrary, loans granted to large, medium, small and micro-business corporations amounted to 211,025 million soles (US$ 55,174 million), with a decrease of 6.22%, compared to January 2023.

The placement of commercial banking credit cards was 6 million 300,000 units, with a variation of -6.48%.

ELECTRICITY

According to preliminary figures as of February 28 of this year, electricity generation increased by 4.59%, driven by the greater generation of energy of thermoelectric origin (5.8%) and renewable energies (90.4%); However, that of hydroelectric origin was affected (-0.6%).

The companies that stood out for their highest production were: Energía Eólica, Enel Generación Perú, Empresa de Generación Huanza, Egesur, Statkraft, Kallpa Generación, Engie, Chinango and Parque Eólico Tres Hermanas.

IMPORT

With information available as of February 22, 2024, in January of this year, the total amount imported was US$ 4,037 million, an amount higher by 5.89% compared to the value registered in January 2023.

Thus, the import of capital goods and construction materials amounted to US$ 1,167 million and grew by 17.79% when compared to the same month of 2023. Followed by the acquisition of consumer goods that totaled US$ 855 million, registering increase of 3.11%, compared to the first month of last year.

Similarly, the import of raw materials and intermediate products stood at US$ 2,014 million, registering an increase of 1.13%, compared to the value of January 2023.