\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Consumer spending still isn\u2019t picking up, according to the latest private surveys, casting doubt on the economic recovery President Javier Milei has been promising for the months ahead.<\/p>\n
Retail sales fell 3.2% year-on-year in April and were down 1.3% from the previous month, according to a survey released by the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Businesses (CAME). Through the first four months of the year, sales are running 3.5% below the same period last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cActivity leaned toward essentials and seasonal items, with shoppers driven by the hunt for financing and discounts,\u201d CAME said.<\/p>\n
Pharmacies were the only category to grow year-on-year, posting a 6.1% rise. \u201cBecause these are essential goods, transactions kept flowing even as price lists were updated,\u201d the business chamber said.<\/p>\n
Sales fell across most other categories: housewares and home dcor (-12.3%), perfumery (-7.2%), and hardware, electrical supplies and construction materials (-4.2%).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Textiles and apparel were down 3.7%, food and beverages 3.1% and footwear and leather goods 0.5%.<\/p>\n
Beyond the drop in food and beverages the category most closely tied to everyday consumption there\u2019s been a shift in what Argentines are putting in their carts: demand is moving toward cheaper brands and the volume per shopping ticket is shrinking.<\/p>\n
CAME also said households are reaching for ways to stretch their budgets, and that bank promotions and discounts have become the main lever keeping sales from falling further.<\/p>\n
E-commerce isn\u2019t filling the gap Online shopping is picking up among Argentine consumers, the report showed.<\/p>\n
In April, online sales by brick-and-mortar retailers were up 8% year-on-year and 0.7% from the previous month, seasonally adjusted.<\/p>\n
Even so, that wasn\u2019t enough to offset the broader decline in CAME\u2019s retail sales index.<\/p>\n
A similar pattern showed up in a survey by the private consultancy Scentia Consulting. E-commerce jumped 34.3% year-on-year, while pharmacies rose 0.9% in March, but the overall average was still 5.1% below a year earlier.<\/p>\n
E-commerce has become a flashpoint in the debate over economic policy. Milei has dismissed the surveys showing falling household consumption, arguing they \u201caren\u2019t reliable indicators\u201d because shopping habits have changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d look at the balance sheets of the e-commerce companies,\u201d the president said. \u201cThe way people consume has changed. You buy a lot of things on Mercado Libre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Households fall behind Meanwhile, 1816, one of the consultancies most closely followed by local investors, has again flagged the jump in household loan defaults. According to its analysis, they continued to rise in March, hitting their highest level in more than two decades and further squeezing disposable income.<\/p>\n
Household loan delinquency climbed from 11.2% in February to 11.5% in March, according to official Central Bank (BCRA) data.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep in mind that household credit delinquency was just 2.5% in October 2024, so it has nearly quintupled in less than a year and a half, even as GDP grew 1.8% over the same period,\u201d 1816 said.<\/p>\n
The official response came from Central Bank President Santiago Bausili in late April, who argued that \u201cthe first wave of credit was, in a way, extended blindly. Without knowing who the money was being lent to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat learning curve ran straight into last year\u2019s interest-rate shock, which made the challenge worse,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
High household debt and rising defaults are weighing on the recovery. In its latest report, the center-right think tank Fundacin Capital argued that \u201cthe authorities\u2019 bet is to jumpstart activity through credit,\u201d as happened in late 2024 and early 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the impact is likely to be limited given weak corporate demand for financing and high household default rates,\u201d the report said, adding that \u201cdurable goods could show stronger momentum, with moderate traction from credit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consumer spending still isn\u2019t picking up, according to the latest private surveys, casting doubt on the economic recovery President Javier Milei has been promising for the months ahead. Retail sales fell 3.2% year-on-year in April and were down 1.3% from the previous month, according to a survey released by the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Businesses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":62082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[414,16113,42,14627],"tags":[595,16112,96,14626],"class_list":["post-62081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-consumer-goods","category-economics","category-retail-sales","tag-business","tag-consumer-goods","tag-economics","tag-retail-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}