Bolivians, Chileans and Paraguayans make 'shopping tourism' on Argentina's borders due to the devaluation of their currency

01-05-23

• Shopkeepers say they do not have enough supply to meet the demand and come to the border from other cities to open stores.

• Many Bolivians shop in Argentina because the price is lower. 

Argentina is "cheap" for Bolivians, Paraguayans, Chileans and Brazilians, who in recent days have been "sweeping" the country's borders. According to a report in the newspaper La Nación, published this week, as the Argentine peso loses value and the gap between the official dollar and the parallel dollar widens, border cities are receiving a massive presence in supermarkets, appliance stores and service stations.

The note reveals that shops in border cities such as Misiones, Formosa, Jujuy, Salta and Mendoza are full of foreigners, many of them Bolivians. The visitors are "shopping tourism".

"Compared to the guaraní or the real, our peso is worth nothing," Alejandro Haena, an adviser and member of the Misiones Economic Confederation, told La Nación.

He says that visitors "are always with the calculator" and, for example, buy many alcoholic beverages that are "very cheap".

"They all take advantage of the fact that they buy at the official dollar and can pay by credit card," Haena recalls, pointing out that a pair of trainers "costs half as much as in a shop abroad".

Also fuels

The publication indicates that Misiones has been leading the ranking of fuel sales per person in the country, basically driven by foreigners. The president of the Chamber of Service Stations and Related of the Northeast, Faruk Jalaf, explains that they continue crossing to load. Non-premium naphtha costs 40% less than in Brazil and Paraguay and 50% less than in Uruguay.

"They are sold a limited quantity, 20 litres. But they go back and forth. We have a delay in the value of fuels, in the updating of taxes and in the exchange rate; it is clearly convenient for them to fill up here".