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Querétaro, Qro. The rise in product prices, the influence of freight transportation costs and the effects of the January slope create a complex outlook for the start of the year for the state’s trade sector.
The president of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Canaco Servytur) local, Fabián Camacho Arredondo, highlighted that the January slope has begun to be reflected in commercial activity, due to the fact that consumption has contracted at the beginning of the year.
Only in the first days of 2022, particularly on weekends, a decrease of 10 to 15% was detected on average in sales in the sector, he commented.
It is still difficult to detect if this decline is also influenced by the preventive measures taken by the population against the increase in Covid-19 infections, he explained.
Added to this situation is the increase in prices of products, which on average are around an 8% annual increase, motivated by various phenomena: among them the increase of almost 30% in costs of road transportation of goods and increases in prices of raw materials .
“This (increase in prices) accompanied by the January slope, reflects an important challenge for the beginning of 2022, for businesses, given the inflationary impact that is reflected in some direct prices to the consumer; and on the other hand the famous January slope. We are in a contraction of consumption, which puts businesses on the road to creativity and innovation, to move forward as every year is done at this time, but today with an additional element that has been the inflationary issue “, he declared .
In some cases, the sector has tried to absorb costs, to lessen the impact of inflation, explained Camacho Arredondo.
“The tertiary sector has been amortizing the rise in prices in some inputs so as not to affect the consumer and as we discussed at the end of December, it is likely that many of these prices would be difficult to contain at the beginning of 2022, it is how it has happened, we bring the data that the trade of construction materials is having increases of up to 20% in prices, “he said.
To cope with this situation, merchants are studying strategies that allow them to amortize these effects on economic activity, especially in the face of upcoming dates of high consumption, as occurs in the first half of February.
Strategies
Some products with the greatest risk of price increases, he pointed out, are those that are moved by highways; In addition to perceiving an increase in the prices of fuels, oil and LP gas.
Therefore, one of the alternatives to face the increases in prices is to promote local consumption among the commercial sector.
“So that from the local supply the impact of inflation is lessened to reduce road transport costs and generate local consumption, which entails the strengthening of supply chains that will be something of the medium term,” he stressed.
During the last month of 2021, the National Consumer Price Index (INPC) increased 0.36% compared to the immediately previous month, in the country; With this, annual headline inflation ended the year at 7.36%; However, in the same month of 2020, the monthly inflation was 0.38% and the annual one was 3.15%, according to the index of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
estados@eleconomista.mx
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