BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentine shopping-center sales soared in July as the country's economy roared ahead and consumers continued to use credit-card offers to buy a wide range of goods.
Shopping-center sales jumped 37.9% on the year, the national statistics agency, Indec, reported Friday.
But sales fell on the month, declining by 3% from June, in part because of increased consumer spending that took place during the winter holidays in July.
Banks continue to spur demand by offering customers the ability to buy goods on credit and pay for them in installments of up to 50 payments, without any interest. That has boosted sales, especially since many consumers expect prices to rise in the months ahead, thanks to inflation. Moreover, given high inflation, many consumer think it is smarter to buy goods now than to deposit money in savings accounts whose rates of return are much lower than inflation.
Private-sector economists say inflation surpasses 20%, although the government puts it at about half this amount.
Both July's annual and monthly sales results were adjusted for price and seasonal effects.
In nominal terms, retail revenue has typically been pushed higher by inflation in recent years. Many economists say that indicators used to adjust sales increases for those price gains significantly understate it.
If a higher figure were used to adjust shopping-center results for constant prices rather than the contested Indec price indexes, the reported annual sales result could be considerably lower.
In any case, economists often downplay the significance of shopping-center sales, saying that abrupt increases and decreases frequently occur and that they don't necessarily reflect broader trends in the economy.
Still, virtually all economists say Argentina's economy is expanding rapidly. Argentina's Central Bank has estimated that the economy will expand by about 9% this year.
-By Taos Turner, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4103-6728;
taos.turner@dowjones.com
(Alberto Messer contributed to this article.)
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-27-10 1514ET