By Hugh Bronstein
BUENOS AIRES, March 19 (Reuters) - Argentine industrial output raced past expectations in February powered by car and steel plants feeding demand from neighboring Brazil, which is recovering faster than expected from the global crisis.
Industrial output grew 11.0 percent during the month compared with February 2009, Argentina's national statistics office said on Friday. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for a 6.7 percent increase in output year-on-year.
Argentine automotive production shot 140 percent higher in February versus the same month last year while raw steel output grew 53 percent, according to government data.
'I don't think we will have such high figures in the future,' said Bruno Fontana, an analyst at Buenos Aires-based consultancy Datarisk Argentina. 'Companies are forcing production levels to the maximum, which will be hard to maintain.'
Argentine gross domestic product expanded 2.6 percent in the last three months of 2009 versus growth of 4.1 percent in the same 2008 period, the National Statistics Institute, or INDEC, said in a separate release on Friday.
Gross domestic product growth for the whole of 2009 was 0.9 percent compared with a 6.8 percent expansion in calendar 2008, INDEC said. Private analysts -- many of whom question Argentina's growth, employment and inflation statistics -- say the country's economy contracted last year.
Argentina's government expects the economy to grow 2.5 percent in 2010, according to its budget proposal. That compares to official forecasts for 6 percent growth in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy and 3.9 percent in Mexico, the region's second largest economy.
Argentina's growth and industrial output data releases were accompanied on Friday by additional financial information from the government.
The primary budget surplus narrowed to 1.21 billion pesos ($310 million) in February from 1.60 billion pesos reported in February 2009.
Tax income growth has slowed as Argentina's economy tries to pull out of the doldrums of 2009 caused in part by the world financial crisis.
The government faces about $15 billion in debt payments this year as it seeks regulatory approval to reopen the country's 2005 debt restructuring. Argentina hopes to reenter the international capital markets once it restructures $20 billion in paper left over from the country's 2001/2002 debt default.
Argentina's current account surplus widened to $1.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 from $1.24 billion in the same period a year earlier while the full-year current account surplus rose to $11.29 billion last year from $7.09 billion in 2008.
(Additional reporting by Karina Grazina, Juliana Castilla and Walter Bianchi; Editing by Andrew Hay)
((hugh.bronstein@thomsonreuters.com; +571-634-4139; Reuters Messaging: hugh.bronstein.reuters.com@reuters.nelea Keywords: ARGENTINA ECONOMY/
COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
BUENOS AIRES, March 19 (Reuters) - Argentine industrial output raced past expectations in February powered by car and steel plants feeding demand from neighboring Brazil, which is recovering faster than expected from the global crisis.
Industrial output grew 11.0 percent during the month compared with February 2009, Argentina's national statistics office said on Friday. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for a 6.7 percent increase in output year-on-year.
Argentine automotive production shot 140 percent higher in February versus the same month last year while raw steel output grew 53 percent, according to government data.
'I don't think we will have such high figures in the future,' said Bruno Fontana, an analyst at Buenos Aires-based consultancy Datarisk Argentina. 'Companies are forcing production levels to the maximum, which will be hard to maintain.'
Argentine gross domestic product expanded 2.6 percent in the last three months of 2009 versus growth of 4.1 percent in the same 2008 period, the National Statistics Institute, or INDEC, said in a separate release on Friday.
Gross domestic product growth for the whole of 2009 was 0.9 percent compared with a 6.8 percent expansion in calendar 2008, INDEC said. Private analysts -- many of whom question Argentina's growth, employment and inflation statistics -- say the country's economy contracted last year.
Argentina's government expects the economy to grow 2.5 percent in 2010, according to its budget proposal. That compares to official forecasts for 6 percent growth in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy and 3.9 percent in Mexico, the region's second largest economy.
Argentina's growth and industrial output data releases were accompanied on Friday by additional financial information from the government.
The primary budget surplus narrowed to 1.21 billion pesos ($310 million) in February from 1.60 billion pesos reported in February 2009.
Tax income growth has slowed as Argentina's economy tries to pull out of the doldrums of 2009 caused in part by the world financial crisis.
The government faces about $15 billion in debt payments this year as it seeks regulatory approval to reopen the country's 2005 debt restructuring. Argentina hopes to reenter the international capital markets once it restructures $20 billion in paper left over from the country's 2001/2002 debt default.
Argentina's current account surplus widened to $1.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 from $1.24 billion in the same period a year earlier while the full-year current account surplus rose to $11.29 billion last year from $7.09 billion in 2008.
(Additional reporting by Karina Grazina, Juliana Castilla and Walter Bianchi; Editing by Andrew Hay)
((hugh.bronstein@thomsonreuters.com; +571-634-4139; Reuters Messaging: hugh.bronstein.reuters.com@reuters.nelea Keywords: ARGENTINA ECONOMY/
COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.