Querétaro’s commerce sector projects growth of 3% in 1Q 2023

Queretaro, Qro. Although the commerce sector closed 2022 with a growth at an annual rate of 8%, it is forecast that in the first quarter of 2023 the advance will be 3% in sales and income, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to estimates from the Chamber of Commerce of Querétaro.

Until now, the beginning of 2023 has been challenging for a sector that continues in the process of recovery, said the president of the chamber, Fabián Camacho Arredondo.

“At least for this first quarter of the year, represented one of the most challenging quarters, because it is January’s slope, because it is a reactivation process, we are registering a rebound of approximately 3% compared to what we had in revenues and sales. in the same quarter of the previous year,” he stated.

The rest of the year is expected to lead to opportunities for productive sectors that continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels, including the tourism segment, the organization of social events, and nightclubs.

However, inflation remains one of the risk factors for the commerce sector, since from 2022 it meant pressure for merchants who chose to contain increases in final consumer prices.

“Inflation this 2023 will remain one of the challenging issues, our record in general issues at the close of the third quarter is that we bring in average terms an inflation of 5 to 6% in general products. (…) The commerce sector is looking to amortize so as not to transfer these direct prices to the consumer, naturally there are pressures on basic inputs, ”he mentioned.

Given the challenge posed by inflation, the holiday seasons and festivities are an incentive to boost consumption, added the branch president of the National Chamber of Commerce in Small (Canacope), Sergio Martínez de León.

In this regard, he exemplified that for the Easter holidays, Canacope estimates an economic benefit of 600 million pesos, 13% higher than the previous year, estimating that it will influence the recovery of pre-pandemic sales.

“(Foresee) by the middle of this year the recovery of 100% of sales and the turns that are behind such as those for meetings, party rooms, etc., we are going to also have a 100% recovery,” he added.

After the end of the last quarter of 2022, he added, small businesses entered a plateau phase that lasted at the beginning of 2023, but currently there is a slight upturn in consumption.

Three years after the impact of the pandemic on the commerce sector, the Canacope leader stated that to date there are no businesses that are technically bankrupt, after in 2021 around 850 establishments were in these conditions.

During 2022, trade in Querétaro maintained single-digit annual growth, of 5.25% in the first quarter, 8.92% in the second and 5.96% in the third quarter, detail records of the Quarterly Indicator of State Economic Activity (ITAEE). .