Protests in Peru cut profits from Christmas campaign

Christmas Campaign 2022 it was the hope of thousands of entrepreneurs. This month alone, the Lima Chamber of Commerce expected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to sell more than 13 billion soles, with malls forecast to reach 11.6 billion.

However, protests due to advancing elections, political marches and strikes by other unions will impact sales results, according to a spokesperson. Mipes United, Daniel Hermosa.

“Unfortunately, the Christmas campaign was probably 30 or 35% affected. We hope to see results in January to get a clearer estimate, but a lot of the revenue that mypes should have had was definitely lost,” he explained.

The Round Table is losing half of its customers

Mesa Redonda’s losses are already in excess of $350 million, a figure that takes into account not only the loss of sales in Lima, but also the loss of stores in regionssince they represent 60% of their income

According to Round Table Vice President Roman Nazario, inflow to the mall has decreased, which will lead to lower profits and affect 20% of the 26,000 jobs created by this season.

“We have 40 or 50% less since December 1, the situation is very difficult for us. attendance fell by 50% and in proportion to the level of sales. We expected to finish almost at pre-pandemic levels, but this will not be possible, ”he said.

The shopping center sector is expecting a loss of 25 to 30%, while the textile sector has a similar forecast for this Christmas season. In addition, the blockades also endangered the distribution of 2 million panettones in the south of the country.

The economic hit will mainly affect 10 regions such as Arequipa, La Libertad, Piura and Ayacucho, according to Economy and Finance Minister Alex Contreras, who also estimates year-end sales losses.

“As of December, already excluding holidays and all, there is a 7% drop in sales compared to last year, and we are going to reverse this trend as a leader. We are announcing this plan very quickly next week, we are already working in parallel with legal arrangements, but it must be targeted, I repeat, to the regions in the affected sectors, and this social explosion has affected the most vulnerable.

The Christmas campaign will not be the same for the sector sightseeing. The commodity only recovered 25% of its pre-pandemic sales due to flight cancellations and flight suspensions, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

It is worth noting that, according to the National Society of Industry, the first 7 days of protests to advance the elections resulted in losses of 3.2 billion soles in sectors such as agriculture, mining and tourism.