Production in the Colombian manufacturing sector, excluding coffee processing, grew by 2.4% on the year in February 2011, according to a report by the National Statistics Agency DANE released Tuesday.
In the 12 months between February 2010 and February 2011, of the 48 manufacturing sub-sectors 31 registered an increase in production while 17 registered a decrease
The biggest growth was seen in the automobile and vehicle sub-sector with a percentage increase of 42%, followed by other types of transport (14.1%) and grain and starch products (13.3%). The iron and steel sub-sector saw the biggest year on year decrease with 20.7%.
In terms of employment in the manufacturing sector, overall there was a year-on-year increase of 2.2%. However the number of people employed on a temporary contract increased by 4.2% and the number employed indefinitely decreased by 1%.
Manufacturing sales at the point of production were up by 2.2% in February 2011 compared to the same month last year.