The latest quantitative information available for June and July, reveals less intense year-on-year rates of growth than the previous months. This evolution is influenced by a base effect since the comparison is made over a period of easing of the restrictive measures put in place in 2020 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
In general, the short-term indicators have not yet reached in June the levels of the same period of 2019, (with the exception of the turnover index in industry), particularly for tourist activity. The synthesis quantitative indicators (economic activity, private consumption and investment) presented, in June 2021, less intense increases than in May. In July, the economic climate indicator decreased, remaining still above the level observed at the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020). Also for July, the indicators already available - sales of vehicles, operations carried out in the ATM network, and cement sales - point to a slow down in economic activity.
The unemployment rate stood at 6.7% in the second quarter of 2021, 0.4 percentage points below the rate observed in the previous quarter but 1.0 percentage points above the rate recorded in the same period of 2020. The labour underutilization rate stood at 12.3%. The total employment presented a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, while the volume of hours actually worked has increased by 32.1% in year-on-year terms.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) year-on-year rate of change was 1.5% in July 2021 (0.5% in June). The manufacturing price index recorded in July a year-on-year rate of change of 8.7% (7.3% in the previous month), the highest growth rate of the series.