The small and medium -sized Argentine companies show greater optimism in the economy in 2025 of what they did last year. But within that varied universe, the sector of the specialized signatures in software and computer services Pica in Punta.
According to the latest report of the Pyme Observatory Foundation, Entity that has the support of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) that has detailed information from the sector for more than 30 years, improves the perspectives is in tune with the Paulatina recovery that showed the variables throughout the year and of the projections for the general activity.
“Expectations are more optimistic for SMEs of software and computer serviceswhere eL 68% of companies expect an increase in sales to the domestic market And 55% projects an increase in occupation in 2025, ”says the report prepared based on a sample of 200 signatures.
The same states that for that sector of the company “Lack of demand and high production costs could also affect the performance of the yeartogether with the lack of personnel with adequate qualification, structural problem in the sector ”.
It should be remembered that this group of SMEs was benefited At the beginning of the government of Javier Milei, because one of its main costs, which is the workforce, had dropped too much in dollars, which made its services for export attractive.
But after that, The exchange rate delay caused work costs to grow, in the same way that everything that is materials that are imported. In fact, there are consulting firms that report having stopped selling certain types of services because they are offered from another subsidiary of the same company in India.
For example, the data indicates that lThe technology companies are going to spend the year without making new investments. 42% say they will increase them, when in the second semester it was 46%. The number that says it will not make changes in the matter with 54%has been increased.
Traditional industrial SMEs
On the other hand, in the SME of manufacturing industry, 47% have expectations for increasing production and 51% of sales to the domestic market. While trust is improving it in a slower way than technological ones.
“Expectations, meanwhile, They are more moderate for investments (34% of the companies that invest have increased expectations) And the occupation (16%), ”says the study.
The report indicates that “although, for all the variables, the companies that project increases exceed those that foresee, There is approximately a significant percentage of companies that do not expect recovery; Situation that shows an still complex panorama and growing fragmentation for the sector ”.
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“Among those companies that still estimate low sales, defensive strategies related to cost reduction, profitability, postponement of investments and suspension/reduction of personnel or extra hours predominate,” reveals research.
The SME Observatory warns that “the improvement in expectations coexists, however, with numerous factors of uncertainty, which could affect the performance of the year. ”
“In the manufacturing industry, the weakness of the demand, the high production costs and Import opening are problems that more than 50% He pointed out as factors that could affect their performance in 2025, ”says the work.
In that sense, it is pointed out that “as to the opening of imports, More than 70% of companies in the sectors of substances and chemicals, rubber and plastic, electrical and electronic products and auto parts consider that this problem could limit their performance. ”
What happened in 2024
The study reveals a disparate behavior between one group and another. While the manufacturing companies had a first half of the year in 2024 of fall, in the second a faint recovery was recorded. On the other hand, technological ones grew all year although at a lower pace in the first half of the year.
Software SMEs and computer services: The sector sustained positive growth rates in 2024, although they were the children of post-pandemic. The data showed a slowdown in the first part of the year and an improvement in the second. In this sense, in the IV-2024 the deflacated sales grew 20% AI and the 3% IA occupation, accentuating the acceleration that had been seen in the previous quarter.
SME manufacturing: In the IV-2024 the decrease in production (-10% AI) and the occupation (-6% AI) was maintained while the improvement of deflacted sales (15% AI) was accelerated, which scored the first annual rise from I-22. The dissociation between sales and the rest of the variables generates questions about whether the increase will translate into an effective increase in production or if, on the contrary, it will continue related to low -price stock settlement or a growing substitution of local production for imports of finished products.
Source: Ambito
