Overview
- Official INDEC surveys released Friday showed real year-on-year declines in April sales across formats: supermarkets down 3.7%, autoservicios mayoristas down 5.0% and shoppings down 5.9%.
- The January–April accumulated results remained negative, with supermarkets down 3.3%, autoservicios mayoristas down 3.2% and shoppings down 5.7% versus the same period last year.
- INDEC’s Business Trends reading found weak demand as the main constraint, with 62.6% of supermarkets and wholesale outlets citing low demand and one-third of firms (33%) rating their current commercial situation as bad.
- Retail employment is falling and firms are cautious: supermarkets reported 96,516 salaried workers (a 2.4% drop year-on-year) and autoservicios mayoristas reported 13,032 employees (a 7.2% drop), while most firms say they will keep orders and staffing unchanged.
- Private data from the Universidad de Palermo extend the downturn into May with a sixth consecutive monthly fall and a ten-month slump in beef sales, and INDEC shows consumers are relying more on credit cards and rapidly growing digital-wallet/QR payments.