Since December of last year, the shortening of the exchange gap due to the devaluation of the peso was beneficial for certain sectors of the economy, such as foreign trade or foreign investments. However, it became negative for
the provincial economies that are located
in border areas
with other countries.
There, consumption was strongly driven by foreigners who were encouraged to buy local products that had
lower prices.
But now,
Argentina is no longer “so given away
” and a growing number of products – especially fuels and mass consumption products – have
higher prices than in neighboring countries.
Particularly
the NEA region is one of the most affected
by the change in the exchange rate relationship since
purchases by Paraguayans and Brazilians
came to gain significant weight within the regional economies.
A report from IERAL (Mediterranean Foundation) took two relevant indicators to analyze border trade:
sales in supermarkets and those of gasoline and diesel
. In the case of supermarkets, it was observed that during recent months sales grew (in nominal terms) well below the Food CPI throughout the region.
When comparing the month of January 2024 with respect to the same month of the previous year, real sales (that is, taking into account variations in inflation), sharp falls were recorded in the province of
Chaco (10.7%) and in the province of Corrientes (11.9%), but above all the falls in the province of Misiones (18%) and Formosa (29.8%) stood out.
The difference in the behavior of mass consumption was also reflected in monitoring by the consulting firm Scentia, which reported in the last year a deeper decline in businesses (supermarkets and self-service stores) in the
interior of the country (-5.8%) than in those of AMBA, (-09%) basically due to lower demand in border areas.
Regarding gasoline and diesel sales, drops are seen in all NEA provinces. When comparing the first month of the year against the previous month, the provinces most affected in the sale of gasoline and diesel were the province of
Formosa (10% and 3.1%) and the province of Misiones (20% and 9.7% ).
According to the regional chambers,
a few Brazilian clients "continue to come only for the
usual favorite products and for the quality, such as wines, sparkling wines, whiskeys, energizers, chocolates, dulce de leche, alfajores, olive oil and some products in the sector." fishmonger and related. Also some perfumery and cosmetics", they explain.
But, for now,
the smallest presence of Uruguayans is also felt in the province of Entre Ríos
. The influx of residents is “90% less” than a few months ago and that affects businesses, for example, in the city of
Concordia
, which, on the other hand, also adds
a “low consumption” of the Argentines themselves in the area. The same happens for the merchants of
Gualeguaychú,
who during the last two years benefited from the buyers who arrived from Fray Bentos.
In the province of
Mendoza
, meanwhile, the impact on the economy is significant since sales to
Chilean tourists
in that city had an important weight not only in Commerce but in the entire provincial economy. To the point that, last year, there was talk of the formation of a kind of 'Province 25' due to the magnitude of operations involved in mass consumption products.
Now, this change in consumption patterns is also reflected in the turnover of hotels and gastronomic establishments that were the main beneficiaries of the shopping tourism of trans-Andean visitors. Today, however, according to the experience of travel agencies, it is more common to find
shopping "tours" of Argentines traveling to Chile
to take advantage of the price differences unleashed by Argentine inflation.
S.N.