A report published in the last few hours by the Red CAME (Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises) showed that SME retail sales fell for the sixth consecutive month in June, standing 3.6% below the same month of 2022, in the measurement at constant prices. Thus, the first half of the year closed with a drop of 1.8% year-on-year. Also in the monthly comparison, 0.9% less was sold in June than in May.
“The market is offering few interest-free installment options like other times, and this slows down purchases of higher values, which have an impact on the sector above all dress, perfumeries and home appliances. A trend that has been observed in commerce is the greater weight of services in the consumption basket, especially those linked to leisure and recreation, which subtracts sales from goods”explains the survey.
The trend can be clearly seen in the graph below: the second half of 2022 maintained a constant drop in sales; a fairly considerable recovery for December -a summer month full of festivities and spending on Christmas gifts-, and then in January the negative trend continues.
It is worth mentioning that six of the 7 items measured had annual falls in their sales during the month of June. The greatest contraction was felt by Textiles and Clothing (-9.6%) and the only branch with rise was Pharmacies (+3.9%), although with difficulties in the replacement of some specific drugs. The fall in clothing is particularly noteworthy, since when Father’s Day was celebrated in June, traders expected some kind of recovery in that sector. However, it should be remembered that most of the sellers made transactions below their expectations during the past month.
