Manufacturing production in Colombia surged 5.8 percent year-on-year in October 2018, following a 2.9 percent increase in the prior month and beating market expectations of a 3.5 percent gain. It is the strongest rise in industrial activity since April. In October, of the 39 surveyed activities, a total of 35 posted gains, namely the production of: pharmaceutical products (18.2%); beverages (5.2%); coke and refined oil products (2.8%); plastic products (14%); paper and paper products (12.9%) and other chemical products (13.3%). On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, manufacturing output went down 0.2 percent, after increasing 0.5 percent in the previous month. Considering the first ten months of 2018, manufacturing production grew 3.2 percent over a year ago. Industrial Production in Colombia averaged 2.27 percent from 1981 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 17.70 percent in March of 1998 and a record low of -22.70 percent in March of 1999.
Industrial Production in Colombia is expected to be 1.70 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Industrial Production in Colombia to stand at 3.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Colombia Industrial Output is projected to trend around 2.80 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.