MercadoLibre posts record Argentina sales amid consumer rebound

MercadoLibre Inc, the Latin American e-commerce and fintech platform that’s now the region’s most valuable company, said it’s seeing signs of a consumption rebound in Argentina after a difficult start to the year.

A record 20 million products were sold on its platform in August, worth the equivalent of US$916 million, the company announced Tuesday in a press release.

Consumers were turning to non-essential goods like computers, tablets and mobile phones after food and basic necessities led the way at the start of the year, MercadoLibre said.

The company is also ramping up its lending to consumers, sellers and small business owners with its credit portfolio growing 69 percent year-on-year in September as measured in dollars. Payments using the company’s QR code system at physical stores also jumped 68 percent from a year earlier on the back of interest-free installment financing, discounts and promotions.

Other indicators tracked by the tech giant like properties for sale and rent, as well as searches for vehicle purchases, show that consumers are recovering from a brutal economic reset being carried out by President Javier Milei’s government to try to quash inflation and end recurring budget deficits.

“These indicators suggest the beginning of a quantitative and qualitative recovery in Argentine consumption patterns,” the company said.

Argentina’s economy is mired in its sixth recession in a decade, with the poverty rate jumping to nearly 53 percent in the first half of this year. Monthly inflation, however, has fallen to about four percent from a peak of nearly 26 percent when Milei took power in December. And there are other incipient signs of recovery, including growth in wages, consumer spending and manufacturing.

MercadoLibre, which gets the bulk of its business from Brazil, saw its market capitalisation cross US$100 billion this year for the first time.