The Fenalco Economic Log revealed that commerce in Colombia completed its 17th consecutive month of decline in sales. Although it was recently Mother’s Day, one of the most important commercial dates for the country, it was not enough for sales to rise.
In fact, 81% of the business owners in the surveys stated that their sales were less than or equal to those that occurred a year ago. At least 50% assured that the numbers were similar, while 31% assured that they fell. We are 19% announced that they had an improvement.
Jaime Alberto Cabal, president of Fenalco, assured that although during Mother’s Day there was a rebound in fashion figures, an area that includes footwear, leather goods, jewelry and bijouterie, merchants’ expectations were not exceeded.
Cabal assured that “what the Log suggests to us is that buyers use their credit cards less intensively, despite the reduction in interest rates. Many consumers look at the immediate future with distrust, fear getting into debt and postpone their credit purchases. “This situation is related to the uncertainty generated by the political and economic panorama of the country.”
The union leader explained that the tax reform is transferring high costs to businessmen, as well as the presence of legal uncertainty, distrust of institutions and “poor” budget execution by the National Government.
In the survey, 24% of businessmen assured that business will improvewhile 76 think that things will remain the same or will go down in the short term.
