Consumption is continuing to fall amid Argentina’s economic recession, according to data collected by a private consultancy firm.
Mass consumption fell by 14.5 percent in May year-to-year and 3.1 percent from the previous month, according to a Focus Market study based on sales data.
The number of receipts fell by 0.3 percent from the previous month and eight percent as against the previous year. Units per receipt shrank by a monthly 1.6 percent to four units per receipt and dropped by 9.4 percent year-to-year to 4.5 units.
Focus Market’s report is based on data from the company Scanntech, which provides code readers at 756 points of sale nationwide.
Nevertheless, data from “May showed a lower drop in consumption compared to previous months,” stressed Damián Di Pace, director of Focus Market.
Independent shops recorded a greater drop in consumption as against the previous month, down 20.1 percent (6,862 pesos on average per receipt and 5.2 units per receipt).
“Sales performance by size of point of sale is different. The large shop format had a greater fall in consumption as against the previous month, at minus 5.1 percent. Medium-sized supermarkets slowed down only by minus 0.2 percent,” explained Di Pace.
He added that “opportunity purchases in promotions, sales and discounts” had gained traction.
In the Metropolitan area the trend is a slowdown of minus 12.9 percent year-to-year and minus 2.3 percent from April. In the meantime, outside Buenos Aires mass consumption fell by 15.5 percent year-to-year and 3.6 percent as against April 2024.
Inflation expected by Argentines for the next 12 months is 87 percent on average, nearly two points above the level recorded the previous month.
According to a separate survey on inflation expectations by Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, using data from June, inflation expected for the next 30 days was on average 8.60 percent, when in May it had been 9.89 percent.
Yet in the year-to-year comparison, the expectation had reached 85.1 percent last month.
According to the latest official data, the overall Consumer Price Index had a monthly rise of 4.2 percent in May and so far this year, it has accumulated a 71.9 percent; year-to-year, the increase reached 276.4 percent.
– TIMES/NA
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