Although inflation moderated, consumption fell again and essential expenses are now prioritized

In this way, although the decline slowed monthly, The negative trend of March was repeatedmonth in which the fall in the purchase of food and basic products for daily consumption deepened, with a drop in 5,1% compared to March 2025.

So, the accumulated of the first quarter had a retraction of 3.3% year-on-year and the reactivation is delayed after 2025 ended with an advance, but it did not compensate for the sharp drop in 2024, after the devaluation at the end of 2023.

In the sector, they understand that The delayed recovery is due to several factors: the acceleration of inflation in recent months, the larger budget that households must allocate to paying for services and the loss of purchasing power, especially in segments of the population that recently did not receive salary increases.

In this regard, Osvaldo del Rioowner of Scentia, analyzed that, moving forward, The evolution of consumption will depend on inflation and recovery of purchasing capacity. In that sense, he anticipated that they could positively impact both the CPI data for April 2,6%which marked a slowdown, added to the fact that May is projected to consolidate this trend: private analysts estimate that it will be between 2,1% y 2,5%.

To analyze what 2024 left behind, we must consider that that year dragged drop in purchasing power due to the devaluation of December 2023 y the effect that years of high inflation had on pocketswhich led to stocking up against prices that constantly changed on the shelves and caused us to lose track of how much things cost.

In that sense, the current more limited consumption is also explained by this change in scenario: With lower inflation there is no longer a need to stock uppurchases today are just and necessary.

As in March, asymmetries in purchases by product categories and sales channels persisted in April. Only e-commerce and pharmacies achieved increaseswith increases of 40,4% y 0,1% year-on-year, respectively.

He e-commerce continues its positive trend versus the same month of 2025. Also, the pharmacieswith a slightly positive sign, they add to the behavior of the sale onlinepointed out del Rio.

The rest of the channels suffered falls: compared to April 2025, supermarkets and wholesalers fell 4.5% alike, Despite the promotions they maintained with banks and fintech; while Independent self-service stores and kiosks saw sales drop 3%.

Regarding product consumption, the behavior of the baskets is heterogeneous between the different channels. The biggest drop occurred in the category of ‘impulsive’ productsassociated with certain tastes that consumers have, with an interannual contraction of 12%.

They were followed by perishableswith a drop of 7,8%; the category of foods related to breakfast and snackcon 7,6%. They also retreated clothing and home cleaning supplies (5,9%), the segment of feeding (3,6%) e hygiene and cosmetics (0,3%).

In contrast, Among those that managed to grow, there are alcoholic beverageswhich went up 6,7%; y non-alcoholic drinkswho advanced 4%.

The behavior reflects a still selective consumptionwith households prioritizing essential expenses and adjusting purchases in more expendable categories.