The economic outlook after COVID-19 was rather bleak, the beginning of 2020 started with flood then came the global pandemic but with all of these, the agricultural sector remained unshaken.
Priority
In the primary sector, the drop translates into a revised rate of 3.5 percent as against 4.6 percent in the LFI 2020″, as stated in the memorandum to the LFR 2020. A decline of 1.5 percentage compared to the LFI 2020 will be recorded for the agriculture sector, which translates to 4.1 percent as against a rate of 5.6 percent initially planned. However, this sector remains a priority for the State and receives special support intending to ensure food security. Besides, the growth of the “livestock and fishing” branch, as well as that of the forestry industry, were almost stable with respective rates of 2.2% and 0.8% compared to the initial rates of 2.5% and 1%.
Out of stock
Concerning the secondary sector, the pandemic has led to a disruption of international trade, resulting in the shortage of stocks of raw materials mainly from China and the drop in demand. “Thus, the growth rate of this sector was highlighted at 1.3%, against a rate of 7.4% in the BIA 2020. Though textile & building materials “and” extractive industry were the most affected, with negative growth rates of -5.1 percent, -2.1% and -1.4% respectively which amount to 10.5, 6, and 9 perent respectively.
Despite the sharp drop, the metal industry showed moderate growth of 2.7 percent, as against an initial rate of 7.3 percent. Also, the “electricity, water, gas”, “food, drink, tobacco”, “machine and electrical equipment” were relatively spared, because these sectors had progressive growth rates of 8.9 percent, 5.0 percent, 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent, against 9.6 percent, 5.3 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.0 percent respectively.
The most affected
Finally, the tourism sector is the most affected by the pandemic. The closure of all international borders has strongly affected its operations, with a significant decline in its growth rate from 5.2 percent to -0.8%. Indeed, all the activities surrounding tourist activities have been disturbed. This is reflected in the growth rates of the hotel, restaurant” and “transport” sectors, which were -7.5 percent and -5.5 percent, versus 13.2 percent and 4.9 the telecommunication industry is doing well despite a slight drop with its growth rate estimated at 9.1 percent compared to an inirial rate of 10.4 percent respectively in 2020.
However, the State plans to put measures in place to revive all affected sectors.
As seen on midi-madagasikara
