He central bank In the interest of keeping economic agents and public opinion in general duly informed, and as part of the institutional commitment to transparency and the timely disclosure of data under its responsibility, it reports the preliminary results of economic activity as of May 2024.
The hotels, bars and restaurants activity exhibited an accumulated interannual variation of 9.2% in the period January-May 2024. This notable dynamism was largely supported by the arrival of 3,716,262 tourists by air during the first five months of the year and 1,284,635 hikers for a total of 5,000,897 visitors in January-May 2024. Likewise, the consolidated credit portfolio directed to the sector increased by 27.6% compared to May 2023.
Regarding construction, which has a significant multiplier and drag effect on other economic sectors, it showed an interannual growth of 4.4% in January-May 2024. This activity is expected to experience greater performance in the coming years. months as the impact on the expectations of the content of the reforms that could be implemented this year becomes clear.
In another order, local manufacturing registered an average interannual increase of 2.7% during the first five months of 2024, which is mainly based on the performance of other food products and the manufacture of common metals. Likewise, the 5.8% year-on-year expansion in the real added value of free zone manufacturing is largely explained by exports amounting to US$3,469.0 million in January-May 2024.
Agricultural activity showed an interannual growth of 4.0% in January-May of this year, with increases in the production of rice, banana, avocado, chicken, eggs, among others, in which the technical and financial support to agricultural producers to national level provided by the Government through the Ministry of Agriculture has had an important impact.
Finally, all economic activities recorded a positive performance in January-May 2024 with the exception of Mining, whose 16.5% drop is mainly explained by the temporary cessation of operations of the ferronickel extraction company since December 2023. as well as the slowdown in the gold extraction process, due to the plan to readjust the facilities required for the continuity of mining activity in the country’s main deposit.
