P.R.’s economic activity up 0.2% in July; down 0.3% year-over-year
Puerto Rico’s Economic Activity Index reached a level of 121.9 in July 2018, representing an increase of 0.2 percent compared to June 2018 and a decrease of 0.3 percent when examined against July 2017.
The IAE has registered an upward trend for eight consecutive months, according to the report released by the Economic Development Bank.
Index components showing year-over-year upward trend in July 2018 were gasoline consumption and cement sales.
The average non-agricultural wage employment in July 2018 was 858,800 jobs, an increase of 0.9 percent over June 2018 and a decrease of 2.3 percent compared to July 2017. Also in July 2018, 1.2 million 94-pound bags of cement were sold, representing a 1 percent reduction in sales when compared to the prior month, but an increase of 24.2 percent over July 2017.
Estimated gasoline consumption in July was 83.4 6 million gallons, down 6.6 percent over June 2018. The figure also represents an increase of 7.7 percent compared to July 2017. Electricity generation was 1,553.9 million kWh in July 2018, an increase of 1.5 percent to the figure reported in June 2018, and a reduction of 8.6 percent in comparison to July 2017.
The EAI is an indicator of economic activity and does not represent a direct measure of real Gross National Product. Rates of change in the indicator are not the same as the GNP, although the indicator has a high correlation with real GDP by allowing to monitor Puerto Rico’s economic trends.
