Sector indicators suggest that economic activity was also weak in December, marking 10 months of stagnation, according to a report released by the Mediterranean Foundation. Nevertheless, the activity level is 4.1% above that of November 2023, according to the official non-seasonally adjusted estimate (with seasonality, November 2025 versus November 2023 shows a growth of just 0.9%). Examining the reality of the main economic sectors, it is evident that in 2025, the hardest-hit sectors were industrial activity (down 8.2%), tourism related to foreign tourist arrivals (-6.7%), commerce (-4%), and construction (-2%), according to the work by Marcos Cohen Arazi, head of the productive area, which was accessed by the Argentine News Agency. Except for commerce, these activities also declined in 2024, meaning they are also the sectors with the most unfavorable accumulated situation over the last two years. "As was visible for most of the year, the dynamic sectors were financial intermediation (+14.2%), mining (+6.9%), and agriculture (+4.8%)," the report states. Since these three sectors also performed very well in 2024, unlike most of the economy, they are also the ones with the best accumulated performance over the last two years," the report indicates. At the end of the year, there may be a certain recovery in tourism (+7.6%, driven by a rebound in domestic tourism), especially after the elections. Below is the ranking of activity level growth over the last two years. The extremes reflect the same reality as in 2025: the positive sectors are financial intermediation, mining, and agriculture; and the negative ones are international tourism, construction, industry (sub-sectors are examined in detail below), electricity, water and gas, and commerce. The case of industrial activity reflects the fluctuations of exchange rate competitiveness, on one hand, and also structural competitiveness problems, the impact of greater economic openness, which affect both manufacturing and other sectors exposed to strong competitive pressure. "It is interesting to note that industrial activity also shows three marked phases during the libertarian era. In the first 5 months, industrial production fell 11%, marking a first phase similar to that of the economy as a whole," the report states. Subsequently, in a second phase, it recovered quickly over the next 7 months to reach the November 2023 activity level. However, the third phase is markedly contractionary and already accumulates a 6% drop in production level. While the general economic activity is in a stagnation phase, the manufacturing industry is in a recessionary phase. When examining the industrial reality in detail, only 4 sub-sectors (out of 16 main ones) showed improvements in activity level in 2025. These are other transport equipment (+7.4%), petroleum refining and fuels (+5.6%), tobacco products (+4.6%), wood, paper, publishing and printing (+1.5%). The rest of the industrial sectors decreased their activity level in 2025. The most extreme case is textile production (-27.9%), followed by vehicle production (-18.8%), metal products (-15.7%), machinery and equipment (-14.4%), and clothing (-13.1%). According to this indicator, industrial production fell by an average of 5.9% between November 2024 and November 2025. The report states that there are strong contrasts between what happened in 2025 and what had happened in 2024. "Advancing in that direction is a necessary condition for the sustained increase in the economy's income level, which would imply entering a virtuous stage for the production of most economic sectors," the report indicates. There are sub-sectors that fell in 2024 and recovered in 2025, and others where the opposite occurred. Those that show a double blow, i.e., fell in both 2024 and 2025, were more than half, standing out for the accumulated magnitude of the fall: textile products, metal products, rubber and plastic products, motor vehicles and related products, and non-metallic mineral products (many linked to construction). Among the sectors in a relatively better situation are petroleum refining and derivatives (production level up 7.6%), food and beverage production (+4.6%), other transport equipment (+1.5%), and tobacco products (+1.3%). And among the sectors with the largest production losses are those that faced a double blow (fall in 2024 and 2025), to which are added clothing, leather and footwear, basic metal industries, furniture and mattresses, and machinery and equipment (falling more than 5%). According to the figures examined, clear winners and losers emerge from the macroeconomic reordering initiated by the current economic leadership. The weakness of the economy to sustain economic growth beyond the recovery that occurred mainly in the second half of 2024 is also clear. "Advancing in reforms and in basic consensuses that help to accelerate investments and exports continues to be a pending matter, beyond the progress made to date."
