For example, according to the survey carried out by Focus Market, In September, consumption fell 14.9% year-on-year, “accelerating to 23% in the first weeks of October.” “This information arises from processing 3.5 million tickets per month,” details the firm, which highlighted that the contraction in The cumulative figure for the first nine months of the year is 7.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.
From the CAME They also warned about the fall in SME retail sales in Septemberthat presented a retraction of 5.1% year-on-year to accumulate a decrease of 2.6% in the first nine months of the year. “It is the ninth consecutive month in which consumption declines in the annual comparison. Meanwhile, in the month-on-month comparison, sales decreased 1.1% compared to August,” the entity explained, and detailed that September was the month of “worst performance of the year“, since consumption “accused the loss of family purchasing power derived from the strong price increases.”
“Despite trying to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of Argentines’ income with bonuses, salary improvements, retirements, pensions, social plans and credit expansion, Government measures failed to positively impact consumption in the domestic market”, analyzed Damián Di Pace, director of Focus Market.
The thing is, as the analyst pointed out, “The acceleration in the post-devaluation price variation in August impacted the pockets of Argentinesadded to the movement of the North American currency in its parallel quote, the fall in demand for the peso and the lack of access to the official wholesale exchange rate for inputs and raw materials, lead to a double-digit inflationary rise.
“The current inflationary acceleration occurs in a framework where many prices in the economy are beginning to move on their own despite previous agreements.“said Di Pace, who added: “While Argentines try to advance purchases of durable goods, the same is not happening in mass consumption goods, where the middle and lower sectors are having less economic and financial capacity to face the loss of purchasing power. of your income.”
Panorama
In this scenario, the contractionary dynamics of consumption seems to continue in October. By case, According to the CAME survey, SME retail sales for Mother’s Day fell 3.2% year-on-year.
“The economic situation due to price dynamics caused consumers to opt for cheaper gifts. This result did not come as a surprise since most businesses were expecting a calm day,” the entity stated, detailing that only 50% of the businesses surveyed carried out some type of promotion.
Meanwhile, as pointed out to Ambit Natalio Mario Grinman, president of the CAC, from the entity estimates a “average decrease in interannual consumption of more than 4%”. And, when projecting whether a recovery is to be expected in the short term, he concluded: “The truth is that we don’t see it likely. Because this whole panorama of exchange rate runs generates enormous uncertainty among merchants. And many of them are going to mark up prices, because they don’t know if they will be able to replace it and at what price. So, many of them, if they can, take the merchandise out of stock. And that, in turn, generates greater increases. Thats the reality. I do not foresee an improvement in the coming months, nor do I foresee that on December 11 this will change. On the contrary. I think that the year 2024, in terms of inflation, will be at least similar to 2023.”
Source: Ambito
