BLOOMBERG.COM
There is one small problem with Argentina’s incipient economic recovery: consumers aren’t feeling it. And that spells trouble for President Mauricio Macri in congressional elections in October. Even as the latest figures show the economy grew 3.3 percent in May from a year earlier, consumer confidence in July fell 6.9 percent year-on-year. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the economy to grow 2.8 percent this year, propelled by an agricultural sector that’s booming after Macri slashed prohibitive export taxes on grains. The construction industry is also starting to hum as tenders for state-funded infrastructure projects grew by almost 200 percent. But three key indicators are lagging: the inflation rate, after falling, is proving stubborn; industrial activity, the main creator of employment, is sluggish, and consumption, the main driver of the economy under the previous government, isn’t recovering at the same pace.
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There is one small problem with Argentina’s incipient economic recovery: consumers aren’t feeling it. And that spells trouble for President Mauricio Macri in congressional elections in October. Even as the latest figures show the economy grew 3.3 percent in May from a year earlier, consumer confidence in July fell 6.9 percent year-on-year. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the economy to grow 2.8 percent this year, propelled by an agricultural sector that’s booming after Macri slashed prohibitive export taxes on grains. The construction industry is also starting to hum as tenders for state-funded infrastructure projects grew by almost 200 percent. But three key indicators are lagging: the inflation rate, after falling, is proving stubborn; industrial activity, the main creator of employment, is sluggish, and consumption, the main driver of the economy under the previous government, isn’t recovering at the same pace.
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