The situation at the border of Uruguay with Argentina remains extremely worrying in terms of trade and companies unable to keep their doors open in the face of Sales drop caused by the exchange difference and the price gap with the neighboring country.
In this sense, both the number of companies and employed personnel decreased during the first quarter of the year in relation to the last quarter of 2022.
Although at the country level the business landscape It is not the most optimistic —the birth of companies fell by 9.71% in the quarterly comparison, although in terms of the death of companies, the indicator improved by 2.78%—; In the coastal departments, the situation is a bit more alarming, especially when compared to the situation in other communes or even at a general level in the territory.
How was the impact on companies on the coast?
The situation that the coastal departments are going through is already known, specifically Jump, Paysandu and Black river, given the significant exchange difference that exists with Argentina and the daily exodus of Uruguayans who cross the border to get cheaper products and services thanks to the exchange rate.
In this context, and according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the amount of active companies and employed personnel fell by 0.26% and 0.57%, respectively, during the first quarter of 2023 in the three aforementioned departments. With this variation, in the first three months of the year, Salto had 4,729 active companies; Paysandu, 5,550; and Río Negro, 2,897.
In year-on-year terms —comparing the first quarter of the year with the same quarter last year— the births of companies registered a negative variation in both Río Negro (-31.5%) and Paysandú (-3.5%), while in Salto the variation was positive, 17.5%.
Regarding the start of cessation of companies, while at the country level this number increased by 8.3%, on the coast the number of companies that began the process to officially stop operating grew to a greater extent: in Río Negro the greatest increase was registered, with 35%, while in Salto it was 13.1% and in Paysandú 11%. This implies, in turn, an impact on employed personnel of 36.1%, 79.8% and 19.3%, respectively —with Salto ranking in the worst position in this indicator.
The seriousness of the situation is understood even more if one observes the companies that closed their doors during the first quarter of 2023. In Río Negro, a total of 759 companies ceased, while 201 initiated the cessation and 128 suffered death. In return, only 174 new organizations were born.
For its part, in Paysandú there were 1,319 companies that ceased and 268 those that initiated the cessation. In parallel, 240 died and 288 were born. In Salto, meanwhile, 1,251 companies ceased, 278 began the process to cease their activity permanently and 193 reached the stage of business death. Regarding the births of organizations, 299 were registered in this department.
Source: Ambito
