Tertiary sector reports 3% growth in Querétaro

Queretaro, Qro. The first quarter of the year brought challenges for the commerce, services and tourism sector of the state, due to the fact that consumption traditionally contracts in that season; however, he registered a annual growth between 2.5 and 3%according to indicators of the Queretaro Chamber of Commerce.

This level of growth is close to the estimate of 3% that the chamber provided for the period from January to March 2023.

However, the sector is projected to achieve growth of 7 to 8% during 2023, said the president of the business organization, Fabian Camacho Arredondo.

The first quarter, he explained, is usually challenging, because the so-called January slope is underway, which is preceded by one of the seasons with the highest consumption of the year, the one that is framed by the December holidays.

Even with the low expectations that were had for this first part of the year, festivities such as the one on February 14 and the holiday bridge on March 21 represented an incentive for commercial activity.

“What is rescued is that this first quarter is always challenging due to the January slope, due to late trade in consumption seasons, but they have been able to take advantage of it in the best way. (…) They represented significant spillovers and that, at least for the tertiary sector, reflected the possibility of maintaining growth compared to the previous year, ”he pointed out.

After the first quarter, he trusted that 2023 will be a year of strengthening both for commerce and in general for services and tourism, branches that the chamber also represents.

For the current year, the state Chamber of Commerce outlines projections similar to those of 2019, estimating that some productive branches will resume their pre-pandemic activity.

Between the items that still do not return to pre-pandemic activity there are stationery stores, nightclubs, tourism and service providers for social events.

“In this 2023 we bring a forecast of economic and sales spillovers for important seasons similar to those we had in 2019 and even, in some sectors, slightly higher. We would be talking about some sectors being in a process over pre-pandemic years, it is significant data, naturally we bring segments (…) that still have some recovery implications ”, he explained.

Fabián Camacho specified that in 2020, the first year of the health contingency, establishments registered a drop in sales of up to 70%, greatly impacting hotels, restaurants and social events.

2022 allowed for greater progress, achieving a 50% recovery in sales, due to the fact that that year the sanitary restrictions were relaxed until the limitations on capacity and hours in the economic units were eliminated.