Mexico’s industrial production falls 4.9% in March

Mexico’s industrial production fell 4.9% in March 2020, at the interannual rate, the Inegi reported.

By sectors of economic activity, construction fell 7%, manufacturing industries decreaced 6.4% and the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy, water and gas supply through pipelines to the final consumer was 0.5% lower, while the mining increased 1.5 percent.

The annual decline in total industrial production was greatest since October 2009.

This indicator does not yet show the impact of the coronavirus on the Mexican economy, which in April caused a severe drop in automotive production and is expected to reflect a larger drop in secondary activities.

Industrial production

Based on seasonally adjusted figures, the Monthly Industrial Production Indicator decreased 3.4% in real terms during March 2020 compared to the previous month.

By sectors of economic activity, manufacturing industries decreased 4.8%, generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy, water and gas supply through pipelines to the final consumer fell 1.8%, construction fell 1.4% and mining fell 0.9% in the third month of this year compared to the previous month.

Information and methodology

According to what was published by INEGI in its Press Release of March 31, 2020, in which the extraordinary measures that the Institute took due to the state of sanitary emergency originated by COVID-19, the recruitment of the Economic Surveys that were considered for the integration of the Monthly Indicator of Industrial Activity (IMAI) corresponding to the month of March 2020 such as the National Survey of Construction Companies (ENEC), the Monthly Survey of the Manufacturing Industry (EMIM), as well as the Statistics of the Mining and Metallurgical Industry was carried out at the established times through the Internet and telephone assistance in order to avoid face-to-face contact.

In this context, the Non-Response Rate in the collection of the information corresponding to the month of March 2020 registered appropriate percentages according to the statistical design of each of the Surveys mentioned, which allowed the generation of statistics with high levels of coverage and statistical precision for integration into the IMAI of the reference month.