Economic activities in the department of Tolima, Colombia: Affectations from the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Since the start of the pandemic in Colombia, different economic sectors have been paralyzed by the restrictions of the national government, having negative effects on the economy in general. Based on the data provided by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 2020 was -6.8%, reflecting the economic impact of the crisis. Based on this, the objective of this work is to outline the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activities that have a share in GDP, taking the department of Tolima as the central axis of study. As a methodology, data documentation was worked on using information provided by national and international economic entities such as DANE, the IMF, ECLAC and MinCommerce. The results show that the economic activities with the greatest impact during 2020 at the national level were construction, mining and commerce, while the department of Tolima had a percentage improvement compared to the 2021-2020 periods in some sectors such as public administration and defense, hotel trade, construction and manufacturing. It is concluded that unemployment in the department and in the country in general increased as a result of the closure of these economic sectors, resulting in an increase in monetary poverty.