Uruguayan industry drastically reduces investment plans

The Chamber of Industries of Uruguay (CIU) has revealed in its Annual Industrial Investment Survey that companies in the sector are projecting an alarming 43% reduction in their investment plans for 2026, compared to what was planned for 2025. This collapse reflects a climate of distrust and stagnation, mainly due to the lower acquisition of machinery and equipment, an essential pillar for industrial growth.

The survey, conducted between September and October 2024 with the participation of 80 companies, exposes a scenario of economic paralysis that highlights the failure of the continuity policies promoted by the governments of Luis Lacalle Pou and Yamandú Orsi.

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Restrictions on domestic demand, low project profitability, and increased labor conflicts are the main obstacles identified by industrialists. Domestic demand, mentioned as a barrier by 64% of respondents in previous years, remains a brake that neither Lacalle Pou's government nor Orsi's has been able to address.

Low profitability is the result of an environment stifled by regulations and costs that discourage private initiative, while labor conflict, which reached 38% of mentions in 2025, reflects the authorities' inability to foster a climate of cooperation between companies and workers.

The governments of Lacalle Pou and Orsi, with their timid approach and lack of bold reforms, have perpetuated an economic model that represses business freedom. The persistence of bureaucratic obstacles and the absence of clear incentives for investment have created an environment where companies prefer to postpone projects rather than risk capital in a stagnant market.

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Regarding support instruments, the Investment Law (Comap) is used by 44% of companies, but its impact is limited in the face of a system that neither fosters competition nor reduces distortions created by the State. Other mechanisms, such as the Industrial Fund, ANII, and Inefop, barely reach 4% usage, while an alarming 44% of companies do not use any promotion instrument.

This demonstrates the disconnect between public policies and the real needs of the sector, as well as the lack of an environment that rewards individual initiative and efficiency.

This reduction in investment is not an isolated phenomenon. In 2020 and 2023, CIU reported reductions of 15% and 14%, respectively, also due to lower investments in machinery and equipment. This trend, aggravated under Lacalle Pou's administration, lays bare a structural problem: the lack of a framework that allows entrepreneurs to act freely, without the chains of a State that interferes more than it facilitates.

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The current situation is a cry of alarm about the country's economic direction. Lacalle Pou's and Orsi's rhetoric, focused on maintaining the status quo, ignores the need to free the market from unnecessary restrictions and to reduce the state burden that suffocates companies.

Without a radical change that prioritizes economic freedom and individual initiative, the sector will continue to languish.

To reverse this decline, Uruguay needs policies that eliminate obstacles, reduce taxes, and allow entrepreneurs to operate without fear of arbitrary interventions. Confidence is not restored with empty promises, but with an environment where the market can flourish without restrictions.

Meanwhile, as Lacalle Pou and Orsi insist on a continuity that ignores these realities, the industry will continue to pay the price for their lack of leadership.

CIU's Annual Industrial Investment Survey is a stark reflection of an exhausted economic model. Without a reorientation toward market freedom and a reduction in the weight of the State, Uruguay's industrial sector will continue its decline, compromising the country's economic future. The responsibility falls directly on those who, from positions of power, have chosen complacency over action.