By The Star Staff
Puerto Rico’s seasonally adjusted economic activity index (EAI) reached 128.0 points in June, or 3% higher than the same month last year, a 21-page Economic Development Bank (EDB) preliminary report shows.
During fiscal year (FY) 2022, the seasonally adjusted EDB-EAI increased by 4.9% compared to FY 2021. Moreover, a preliminary increase of 1.9% was recorded during the calendar year 2022, after an increase of 4.9% in 2021.
In the first six months of 2023, the EDB-EAI reached 0.8% growth compared to the same period from the previous year.
Total non-farm payroll employment recorded an average of 940.6 jobs in June, representing a contraction of 1.7% on a month-over-month (MoM) basis and an annual increase of 2.6%. Electric power generation for June 2023 totaled 1,675.0 million kilowatt-hours, a 3.6% growth on an MoM basis and a yearly upturn of 3.4%.
The preliminary estimate for gasoline consumption in June 2023 totaled 69.8 million gallons, 0.3% above the 69.6 million gallons estimated for May 2023 and an 8.7% improvement compared to the same month from the previous year.
Cement sales totaled 1,188.4 million 94-pound bags for June 2023, with decreases of 7.3% on an MoM basis and 5.0% when compared to June 2022.