Consumption in Argentina improved last year, despite slowing in November and December, a new business chamber report shows.
Data from the Cámara Argentina de Comercio y Servicios (“Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services,” CAC) shows that consumption rose by 2.5 percent in 2025 compared to the previous year, despite registering a decline in December for a second consecutive month.
According to the Consumption Indicator (IC) compiled by CAC experts, household spending on goods and services fell in both November (down 2.8 percent year-on-year) and December (down 1.4 percent).
Month on month, however, spending rose in the final month of the year and increased by 1.2 percent from the preceding period.
Household spending on goods and services has shown a modest recovery since President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, following a sharp contraction in 2024.
“This evolution in consumption must be viewed in the context of price developments, given that a slight acceleration in inflation was recorded during the second half of 2025,” CAC sources told the Noticias Argentinas news agency.
Sectoral performance showed divergent trends. The “clothing and footwear” category grew by 4.9 percent year on year, offsetting the fall in the IC by contributing 0.4 percentage points (pp).
Meanwhile, transport and vehicles posted a year-on-year decline of 2.8 percent. Following a 2025 marked by continuous growth in vehicle registrations (both cars and motorcycles), consumption in this segment now appears to be stagnating, deepening the sector’s decline, said the CAC report.
The category of recreation and culture also recorded a 4.3 percent drop compared with the same month in 2024. That ended a run of recovery compared with 2024 that had extended through virtually the entire second half of 2025.
As has been the case since Milei took office and removed several subsidies, housing, rent and public utilities soared 6.8 percent year on year, contributing one percentage point to the overall index.
As for the remaining categories in the CAC report, these experienced a year-on-year decline of 3.8 percent in December.
Credit showed signs of consolidation after having fallen at the beginning of 2024. In particular, credit to households and families showed sustained growth, although after almost two years of expansion it has only recently begun to show signs of fatigue.
Vehicle registrations are following a similar trend, while property transactions continue to support overall credit growth, posting positive year-on-year variations, albeit at a slower pace than at the start of the year.
“Mass consumption recovered slightly after a marked decline in 2024, while consumption of durable goods is slowing the pace of its strong improvement. As a result, durable goods continue to gain ground in household consumption, displacing mass consumer goods, albeit less markedly,” CAC concluded.
Looking ahead to 2026, the organisation stated that the year begins with “prospects of greater relative stability in this area, with the composition of household consumption tending to stop changing.”
Di Tella sees inflation above 30%
Inflation in Argentina is unlikely to drop below 30 percent in 2026, according to a new report by the Torcuato Di Tella University
Average inflation expectations for the next 12 months in Argentina stood at 31.5 percent in a survey conducted by the Financial Research Centre (CIF) that consulted economists and experts and hundreds of other sources.
This represents a decrease of 2.5 percentage points from the 34 percent recorded in December 2025.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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