After the tourist balance gave record in the first four -month period of the year, Daniel Scioli, Secretary of Tourism, Environment and Sports, announced that he works in coordination with the Central Bank (BCRA) to correct and provide greater detail about The methodology with which the deficit in the Services account is calculated, which includes the tourism, with the aim of reflecting more precision the real economic impact of the sector.
The statement arises after the publication of BCRA figures referred to the emissive tourism and its weight in the balance of payments, which according to Scioli, IConcepts outside trips abroad and end up distorting the diagnosis of the item. “We are working with the Central Bank to differentiate the numbers of the MULC (single and free market) about what are really tourism expenses,” said Scioli.
In that sense, he pointed out that the current methodology encompasses expenses that have little or nothing to do with tourism activity, such as electronic commerce or subscriptions to digital platforms (Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, among others), which are computed within tourist expenses when they should actually be classified apart.
“The inclusion of other concepts such as e-commerce or digital platforms in the calculation distortes the real information of the economic impact of the sector,” he said.
In addition, Scioli stressed that the statistics of the RECEIVE TOURISMthat is, the expenditure made by foreigners who visit the country. Put as an example the case of Chilean tourists, whose average daily consumption appears as $ 54 per daya figure that, according to does not reflect reality.
“Work is being worked on the real consumption of income generated by receptive tourism. The daily expenditure registered by Chilean tourist is not representative of the current consumption,” he explained.
Tourism: record figures on trips abroad and strong deficit in the service account
Beyond the figures disseminated by the Central Bank on the impact of tourism on the balance of payments, INDEC data also confirm the strong growth of emissive tourism. As reported by the statistical agency last Monday, between January and April they traveled abroad 5,957,800 residentswhich represents a 68.4% jump Regarding the same period of 2024 and a Historical record.
In contrast, during that same period they entered the country 2,065,300 foreignersan interannual fall of 21.4%which makes this four -month period in the least arrival of international tourists in the last decade, excluding the exceptional years of pandemic.
This imbalance is also reflected in the data of the Central Bank. In April, the service account deficit was mainly explained by net expenses for travel, tickets and other card paymentsthey added U $ S863 million. To this they joined U $ 307 million for other services and U $ 230 million for freight and insurance. These negative balances were barely compensated by net income in Business, professionals and technicianswhich they reached U $ S239 million.
In total, the services sector accumulated a U $ 4,185 million deficit In the first four -month period of 2025, which represents more of the 85% of the red recorded in all 2024.
While the imbalance remains below the peaks of 2017 and 2022when the deficit exceeded the U $ 10,000 millionit is striking that the tourism account has shown such a marked red in April, Similar to the summer seasonsomething unusual for that month.
Source: Ambito
