Despite high inflation, households do not spend less: what is the reason?

Judging by the results of household spending, in August a fall is still not identified due to high inflation that in this part of the year can impact items such as public services.

According to the Raddar report, for the seventh month of the year, spending growth was 16.1%, with an accumulated figure for that period of $76.4 billion.

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The amount for the last 12 months amounted to $899.3 billion. The increase registered is explained by the increase in employment, inflation and remittances.

“Households had a monthly inflation of 1.02% and 10.84% ​​compared to last year, atypical data in the observations of the last 20 years; This caused household spending in real terms to grow -14.3% compared to the previous month and 4.8% compared to the same month last year (which grew at a rate of 6.65% per year).”, he indicates.

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“Although inflation is high, there are still no signs of a drop in household spending”. This, he concludes, “may show that we are going to slow down gently in the coming months,” the report notes.

“Expenditure continues to grow, but due to inflation we see a process of negative trend that affects the home, particularly due to the effect that this has on food, public services and, now, with gasoline, we are obviously going to have an impact”, commented Samir Ocampo, president of Raddar.

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In the first half of the year, food increased more, but currently, The largest category is public services. and the increases in energy rates, for example, and the energy rates would be evidenced there.

“Among the baskets that presented the greatest contribution to spending are meals outside the home, entertainment and transportation, which may be related to a greater influx of consumers on the streets”, detailed Ocampo about the moment that the consumer lives and the development of the traditional Home Fair that is celebrated until next Sunday in Corferias.

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For Samir Ocampo, it looks like the household seeks to build well-being even though inflation does not help much, which would show the interest in spaces to access these goods.

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