Between the years 2022 and 2023, Uruguay faced an historical drought that led to a call for national emergency in the latter year. This extreme event severely impacted the agricultural sector of the country. However, despite the adversities, Uruguay's economy has demonstrated a positive performance with a
estimated at 77.24 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, reflecting a 0.37 percent growth year-over-year. In 2022, the country had the highest
of the Latin America countries.
International trade
The Uruguayan economy is dominated by the
service sector, which contributed about 63.17 percent to the GDP in 2022, followed by the industry and agricultural sectors at almost 18 and seven percent, respectively. Nevertheless, the South American country is well-known for its agricultural exports. In 2023, all the
leading export goods were related to this sector, with beef accounting for over two billion U.S. dollars, and China and Brazil being
primary trading partners.
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been growing since 2020, with
3.1 billion U.S. dollars in inflows in 2022. In that year, 38 percent of the
attracted investments were directed at the manufacturing sector. The commerce and financial and insurance services sectors were responsible for nearly 31 and 19.51 percent, respectively, of the foreign investment in the country. As for the
origin of the FDI, in 2022 Spain was behind 20 percent of the total amount invested, followed by Finland, whose investment constituted 15 percent overall.
Labor market
Home to 3.5 million people, Uruguay had a
labor participation rate of over 75 percent in 2022, which amounted to nearly 1.7 million workers. Nevertheless, not everyone has successful in finding a job, as the
unemployment rate grew from 7.87 percent in 2022 to 8.39 percent in 2023. Unemployment is higher in the
northwestern part of the country, as the departments of Rio Negro and Salto both had a rate over 12 percent in the quarter comprised of December 2023 to February 2024.
Economic outlook
In 2023, the
inflation rate of Uruguay reached 5.87 percent - the lowest level since 2005. In 2024, the agricultural sector will have its first year without any foreseen adverse events since the end of the severe drought, thus increasing its export goods. With inflation within the Central Bank’s target range and the recovery of the agricultural goods exports, Uruguay is
projected to have a GDP growth of 3.7 percent in 2024.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
