Uruguay's economy advanced 2.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, following a 2.2 percent rise in the previous period. It was the fastest expansion since the second quarter of 2017. Main contributions to growth came from manufacturing (6.8% vs 2.8% in Q1) and construction (2.5% vs 1.3%), as retail trade and restaurants & hotels (2.3% vs 4.3%) and transport, storage and communications (4.5% vs 6.7%) lost steam. Also, agriculture contracted (-2.1% vs -5.3%). On the expenditure side, government spending (1.5% vs -0.1%) and fixed investment (0.8% vs -2.5%) rebounded while household consumption eased (2.5% vs 2.8%). Meantime, net trade contributed negatively to growth, as exports fell 6.7 percent (vs 4.2 percent in Q1) whereas imports surged 5.6 percent (vs 3.7 percent). On a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, the GDP expanded 0.2 percent, after a downwardly revised 1.0 percent growth in the first quarter of 2018. GDP Annual Growth Rate in Uruguay averaged 2.69 percent from 1998 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 10.50 percent in the second quarter of 2010 and a record low of -9.30 percent in the third quarter of 2002.
GDP Annual Growth Rate in Uruguay is expected to be 2.90 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate GDP Annual Growth Rate in Uruguay to stand at 3.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Uruguay GDP Annual Growth Rate is projected to trend around 3.30 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.