Financial intermediation and real estate activities also register favorable performance, notes economist Marcos Cohen Arazi from Fundación Mediterránea-Ieral. Consultancy LCG warns that for the remainder of the economy “no clear drivers exist to propel vigorous development,” projecting average annual growth below 3 percent for domestic-facing sectors.
The employment impact proves severe. Unemployment climbed to 7.5 percent by end-2025, with construction accounting for nearly 20 percent of new jobless cases, commerce contributing 16 percent, and domestic service and manufacturing adding 11.3 percent and 9.7 percent respectively.
GMA Capital identifies exhaustion of credit-driven demand as a primary constraint. Disinflation eliminated debt payment relief through currency depreciation while elevated real interest rates made borrowing prohibitively expensive. Simultaneously, a portion of domestic consumption shifted to imported goods under increased trade openness and an appreciated real exchange rate.
Consultancy Epyca characterizes this pattern as “K-shaped growth,” a direct consequence of current economic policy. While extractive sectors and financial services prosper, manufacturing and construction face intensified foreign competition.
The government authorized construction of a 93-kilometer high-voltage transmission line to supply the Josemaría-Filo del Sol mining project in San Juan province, with a 25-year concession entirely financed by developer Vicuña Argentina. The infrastructure approval underscores official prioritization of resource extraction despite widening sectoral disparities. Recovery prospects for struggling sectors depend fundamentally on robust real wage gains capable of reactivating domestic consumption, a development not yet evident in current data.
This article was curated and published as part of our South American energy market coverage.
