The sudden jump of the blue dollar, which at the beginning of the week rose another $20 and ended up selling at $462, begins to hit ordinary Argentines squarely, as various analysts recognized yesterday and as this newspaper was able to verify in inquiries from different businesses region of.
It happens that the informal currency is usually taken as a reference variable for clients and merchants. A shock like yesterday’s in the price of blue or informal usually drags price remarks across the board and impacts the availability of some products, especially durable consumer goods and construction.
“This happens because the expectation of the replacement cost may be higher going forward and given the risk that the rest of the competitors will adjust their prices sooner or later also due to the perspective of the movement of the dollar”, explains the economist Juan Pablo Albornoz.
Thus, products highly dependent on imports such as electronics, construction materials, motorcycles, bicycles, tires, some textiles and even toys feel the impact. “Suppliers only comply with previously committed orders, but they refuse to take new ones because they say they have no price,” they illustrate from those sectors.
recession climate
In the Region, Martín Bizet, who is the president of the City Bell Chamber of Commerce and Industry, observes a climate of “recession” and points out that in the textile field “clothes are being obtained for blue dollars because they cannot be imported fabrics to official dollar”.
He adds that in one week, prices increased by almost 10 percent regardless of whether the merchandise is national or imported, “because today a large part of our economy is dollarized,” he asserts. That’s why when the dollar moves, everything moves.”
Beyond the price increase, Bizet does not notice a lack of products. At least for now: “It happens that any change in the economy takes time to be reflected in trade. These problems with the dollar will surely be verified in 15 or 20 days. That is when the lack of the product is going to be felt, which perhaps was not delivered due to speculation or whatever, ”he predicts.
“Recession” is the word that Valentín Gilitchensky, president of the shopping centers of the La Plata Business Federation (Felp), also chooses to describe the current situation and then analyze the behavior of prices: “Imported prices rise, but national prices even more” and that “there are suppliers who are selling, but many others who have no price, who wait for the next month to see what happens or until the rise in the dollar stops.”
Regarding the replacement of products, Gilitchensky adds that “the payment terms were cut again in order to maintain prices. It is something that happens when runs of this type occur -he explains-: lines of credit and checking accounts are cut off”.
up to two price lists
Like his colleagues in the business, the 8th Street merchant assures that prices rise every month and that in April they have had “up to two price lists, when in general the values are corrected once a month.”
The rise in the price of the blue dollar is also a reason for sleeplessness in the hardware sector, given the flow of imported inputs with which they work. Gustavo Celestre, who chairs the Los Hornos Commercial Association and is also a hardware store owner, acknowledges that since the last launch of the informal ticket, sales have dropped between 25 and 30 percent: “People leave frightened, prices are out of control and there are no values fixed because the suppliers do not respect the official dollar, but an alternative dollar between the blue and the official one”.
Celestre is visibly concerned. He admits that “for years” he has not experienced a situation like this and adds that the remarking of prices linked to the increase in blue complicates the reluctance in the delivery of merchandise: “They do not deliver directly or the prices they have are impossible to buy. Copper and machinery, for example, have gone up a lot, ”he says, lamenting this equation in which prices and fixed expenses rise while sales fall.
In the hardware stores, they say, the situation is day by day and that it has become more complicated in recent weeks: “Suppliers have cut off our checking accounts. They deliver merchandise to us, but what they get from the brand they get. The price lists vary at the rate of the dollar and we don’t even see the official exchange rate”.
With bicycles (built to a large extent with imported components) the situation is similar. “Everything is quite stopped,” they warn from a Los Hornos bicycle shop, where they also talk about shortages, delays in deliveries and little stock. They add: “The wholesalers closed the lists and there are no reference values, so we do not know at what price we are going to buy the products in the future if we sell them now.”
The sale of spare parts (cars and motorcycles, especially) suffers something similar: “At the moment there is a tense calm, but we imagine that delivery will soon be suspended. Not us, but the factories, which is why we are in permanent meetings with the work teams”, anticipates Walter, also from a Los Hornos location.
In front of a house of household appliances from La Plata, Juan notices a “speculative” attitude on the part of suppliers attentive to the upward trend of blue: “There are companies that continue to deliver and others that do not, especially those that manufacture televisions, tablets, computers and notebooks. This affects the stock, because if you sell what you have available now, then you don’t know when you are going to replace it,” he says, to observe “that price changes occur every week” and finally correct themselves: “Every day.”
Finally, when Patricia Morales, president of the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce, was consulted about how people behave with the issue of the rise in the dollar, she responded that “you can see the impacts on people who stopped buying. And so many things, they carefully choose what they wear”.
Is it sold more or less?: “It is relative, but you can tell that sales have dropped.
In addition, he expressed his concern because “approximately every 10 days you have new price lists.”
He explains that “many times businesses try to bank the increase, but it is not always possible”
In how much the increases do vary depending on whether it is national or imported, he recognizes that what is “outside” is always a little more expensive. “We work national and imported and a variety of items, and you realize the difference,” she said.
Regarding reruns, they estimate that they are not as frequent as before.
“Besides, another issue is also the taxes we pay, which are fixed expenses plus rent and salaries, and that also goes up, like the dollar,” he said.
“If you sell what you have available now, then you don’t know when you are going to replace it”
