In the last hours the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME) released the Retail Sales Index of SMEs in which a 7.3% drop in transactions was recorded in annual comparison and a drop of 16.2% in the first five months of 2024, despite this the confidence of improvements in businessmen is consolidated.
“Nearly seven in 10 businesses cited lack of sales as their main problem. Two other conflict points were the high logistics costs and collection problems, which as the recession progresses, become more accentuated.“, they maintained from CAME.
– Advertising –
In this line, according to the SMEs of the country there was greater stability in the prices of sales But the costs of energy, fuel and rent complicated the profitability of the businessmen. “Some said they were financially suffocated,” said the CAME.
It is worth pointing out that the index of sales of the SMEs it is done by CAME monthly on a total of around 1,251 retail businesses throughout the country, in the case of the one that announced the Confederacy This Sunday was carried out between June 2 and 7 on the results that businessmen obtained in the month of May.
In this way, according to the CAME five of the seven sectors surveyed had decreases in sales compared to the same period last year, while the SMEs The textile and clothing sector rose by 14.1% and the footwear sector increased by 0.4%.
In that order, the largest annual retraction of sales in the SMEs were those of the perfumery sector with 27.8%, followed by those of pharmacies that fell by 20.3%, those of bazaar, decoration, home textiles and furniture did so by 10%, food and beverages did the same. own by 9% and hardware, electrical and construction materials was 7.8%.
– Advertising –
“The general recession influences the low levels of sales, bank promotions helped but not enough because people still don’t have money. And the expenses for electricity, gas, taxes and infrastructure are increasingly greater, so it costs a lot to maintain staff and assume fixed expenses,” acknowledged a merchant from the Buenos Aires province.
It should be noted that the confidence of businessmen SMEs improved in the last month as a result of the slowdown in inflation and the consolidation of some macroeconomic variables driven by the National government headed by Javier Mileiaccording to the Confidence Index carried out by the CAME.
Strictly speaking, the CAME reported that the businessmen of the SMEs They are less confident at present, but they expect an improvement in the near future due to the economic measures of the Government and with this the possibility that they are going to make investments in their sectors is considered.
