MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

June, worst month for Argentine retailers since 2002 crisis

Argentine retail sales at national level “plummeted” in June falling 18.3% compared to the same period a year ago, the worst performance since the country began recovering from the 2001/02 collapse of the economy according to a release from the Argentine Confederation of Small Enterprises, CAME.

The report goes further and says that if only the interior of the country is considered, excluding major urban centers, the fall reached 30%, mainly because of the breaking of the chain of payments forced by shortages and the non friendly political atmosphere that is sowing uncertainty among consumers. "Peoples' caution, loss of purchasing power, increase in interest rates, caps on plastic money spending, freezing of payments and rebounded checks have contributed to the detriment of overall consumption", reads the report, making June the worst month ever for the retail sector. According to CAME no sector has been absent from the "drought" and Father's Day was a "complete failure". People converted their scarce pesos into US dollars and "liquidity was so short" that some companies had problems paying salaries and compensations at the end of the month. In spite of the Argentine Central Bank efforts to show that economic indicators are solid and the fundamentals of the economic sound, the retraction has been accelerating with mounting fears about inflation and the consequences of the ongoing stand off between the Kirchner administration and the farmers. CAME said that some companies have closed shops, left staff redundant and have been delaying fiscal payments. The organization said that last May only a third of sectors were suffering the full impact of the situation but in June it was extensive to all sectors, in all the country, regardless in they were in areas most affected by the farmers' protests. In the northeast provinces of Argentina according to CAME, sales plunged 30%, forcing some governments to postpone tax collection payments 45 days