Official numbers: The Colombian economy grew by 1.6% in January.

The activities that drove economic growth were agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, mining, and other primary activities.

Colombia’s GDP growth can be seen in the image.

The National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) revealed that the country’s economy experienced a growth of 1.6% in January 2024 compared to the same month in 2023, as reported on Monday, March 18th. This is because in the first month of this year, the Economic Monitoring Indicator (ISE) was 114.39, while in the first month of last year, the index corresponded to 112.59.

The economic growth during this period was mainly attributed to the 10.26% annual rebound in primary activities, which include agriculture, livestock farming, hunting, forestry, fishing, mining, and quarrying.

This result marks the third consecutive month of positive figures for the Colombian economy. In November 2023, it was 1.94%; in December, 0.12%; and in January, 1.6%.

On the other hand, industrial activities recorded a decrease of 4.99%. Secondary activities comprise the production of textiles, food and beverages, rubber, petroleum derivatives, and the construction sector. The decline in these sectors was particularly notable in manufacturing and construction, which have experienced contractions over the last eleven months.

Meanwhile, service activities increased by 1.03%. These include everything related to the exchange of services such as banking services, communications, healthcare services, restaurants, security services, education, hospitality and tourism, transportation, and entertainment.

This result is encouraging compared to the figures from August, September, and October when there was a decline. Last year’s growth was below experts’ expectations, which ranged between 0.9% and 1.4%.