The Argentine Pymes Industriales (IPA) reported that 92,000 jobs have been lost so far this year, of which 40,000 were in the sector. The situation going forward is worrying and they are calling for productive policies.
The Annual sales decline rates in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) segment do not fall below 10% month by month since December on average for the entire industry and this results in 56.8% of installed capacity in use in the industry between December and May, almost 10 percentage points below the level for the whole of 2023. This was reported by Industriales Pymes Argentinos (IPA) in the presentation of its monthly report.
“92,000 jobs have been lost so far this year, of which 40,000 were in the SME sector”reported on the matter Economist Martín Kalos, from the IPA ObservatoryHe said that we are on a very dangerous path, as he predicted that between 120,000 and 226,000 jobs could be lost in the public and registered sector this year, of which between 47,000 and 87,400 would be SMEs.
They pointed out that “companies are wondering how long they can hold out in this context” and warned that Between 8,600 and 12,000 SMEs could close“Hopefully this will be reversed and we can talk about some kind of recovery,” Kalos hoped and emphasized that “it is urgent that the Government take productive and development policy measures.” He pointed out that the rest of the world is moving forward in this sense, but Argentina is going in a totally opposite direction. “We should imitate the example of Brazil in industrial matters,” said Kalos.
SME Alert: Has the economy hit rock bottom?
The IPA report indicates that the economy bottomed out in May and is beginning to recover little by little, according to statistical data, but warned that “this is not homogeneous and The current situation is not sustainable because companies are having a very strong impact on their accounts and activity.“And, he said that, although there were almost no company closures in the first quarter because SMEs are doing everything possible to avoid it, there are various worrying symptoms, such as some bank account closures and CUIT cancellations.
He pointed out that this is also evident in the experience of companies. And he stressed that The work reflects the voice of business owners, not statistical data.What is happening is what we at IPA had been warning would happen. And this is in addition to the suspensions planned by large companies.
But what worries the sector most is that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. “This clearly has to do with a political decision that sets the course for lowering inflation,” said Daniel Rosato, director of IPA.
A planned recession
He assured that lThe way to lower the inflation that the Government is aiming for is by driving down consumption. and that, in the meantime, many people are losing their jobs. “There is an ideology behind this recession that affects the entire productive sector and the entire society,” said Rosato.
He also noted that “There is no productive policy, which is very worrying because we were coming from years in which the sector was recovering thanks to the policies that were implemented from 2020 to 2023 due to the pandemic.” However, if we continue on this path, he anticipated that we will surely see a doubling of job losses, of which the majority will be SMEs.
Between 120,000 and 226,000 jobs could be lost in the private sector and registered this year, Of which between 47,000 and 87,400 would be SMEs. Between 8,600 and 12,000 SMEs could close. And, IPA warns that, “in less than a year, we would be reaching what Macri did in four, in terms of company closures and we are at similar levels of job losses as well.”
What is worrying is that the results being obtained are in line with government plans and that means there is little expectation that circumstances will improve.
Source: Ambito
