Discounts and offers, increase in the price level generally and the rise in operating costs due to new health and safety protocols are the main threats to the profitability of companies in this new commercial reality.
Given this context of economic and health crisis, which derives from the outbreak of covid-19 at the global level, Ariel Baños, a specialist in price management and founder of Fijaciondeprecios.com, explains what are the main threats that could affect the profitability levels of companies, and details some strategies that could be applied to mitigate the adverse effects.
In Guatemala, between January and December of last year the price of 16 gauge steel wire rose 16%, and that of structural galvanized steel sheet, die-cut, 26 gauge, was reduced by 5%.
The Price Index of Construction Materials -IPMC-, prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), measures the variations of the prices of the eighty-nine (89) materials and services that integrate the representative basket of inputs used in the construction activity, using as base month December 2018=100.
During December 2019, the CPI registered a 3.4% variation with respect to the same month of the previous year, an inflationary rhythm higher than the 2.3% reported at the end of 2018.
The most important inflation levels of December 2019 are the following: a monthly inflation of 0.60% was registered, an inflationary rhythm of 3.41% and an accumulated inflation of 3.41%, informed the National Statistics Institute (INE).
For the third consecutive month, the inflationary rate in Guatemala decelerated, since the year-on-year variations reported by the Consumer Price Index during July, August and September, were of 4.4%, 3% and 1.8%, respectively.
The most important inflation levels in September 2019 are as follows: monthly inflation of -0.58%, inflationary rate of 1.80% and accumulated inflation of 1.63%, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Between June and July of this year, the inflationary rhythm in Guatemala decreased from 4.8% to 4.4%, mainly because of the variations in the prices of alcoholic beverages and food.
The most important inflation levels in July 2019 are as follows: -0.06% monthly inflation, 4.37% inflationary rhythm and 3.11% accumulated inflation, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
After registering a 4.5% year-on-year variation in the Consumer Price Index in May, in June the inflationary rhythm rose to 4.8%.
The most important inflation levels in June 2019 are as follows: 0.83% monthly inflation, 4.80% inflationary rhythm and 3.17% accumulated inflation, reported the National Statistics Institute.
After recording a 4.8% year-on-year variation in the CPI in April, the inflation rate dropped to 4.5% in May.
Monthly inflation (0.26%), shows a slowdown compared to May of the previous year (0.47%), while the accumulated (2.33%), and year-on-year (4.54%), show an acceleration compared to the same month last year, according to the report of the National Statistics Institute.
For the second consecutive month, Transportation was the spending division that explained most of the rise in the Consumer Price Index, reported to March 2019.
The most important inflation levels of March 2019 are the following: monthly inflation of -0.04%, inflationary rhythm of 4.17% and accumulated inflation of 1.44%, informed the National Statistics Institute (INE).
After the Consumer Price Index reported interannual variations of 2.6% and 3.3% in July and August, in September the inflationary rhythm increased to 4.6%.
From the National Statistics Institute report:
The most important inflation levels in September 2018 are the following: monthly inflation of 0.60%, inflation rate of 4.55% and accumulated inflation of 2.13%.
In the eighth month of the year, the CPI registered a monthly variation of 0.44%, mainly explained by the behavior of prices in the category of Food and Restaurants.
From a report by the National Institute of Statistics:
The most significant inflation levels in August 2018 are the following: monthly inflation of 0.44% was registered, inflationary rhythm of 3.36% and accumulated inflation of 1.53%.
In June, the consumer price indexes in all of the countries in the Central American region recorded year-on-year increases in the transport spending division.
According to a report from the Central American Monetary Council, in June of this year, Nicaragua was the country that reported the highest year-on-year increase in the price level of transportation services, registering an increase of 9.8% compared to the same month in 2018.
In the first sixth months of the year, the CPI recorded a monthly variation of 0.57%, mainly explained by the behavior prices of Food and Health products.
From a report by the National Statistics Institute:
The most important inflation levels in June 2018 are the following: monthly inflation of 0.57%, inflation rhythm of 3.79% and cumulative inflation of 0.72%.
In the fifth month of the year, the CPI registered a monthly variation of 0.47%, mainly explained by the behavior of the prices of Transportation and Food.
From a report by the National Statistics Institute:
The most important inflation levels of May 2018 are the following: a monthly inflation of 0.47%, an inflationary rhythm of 4.09% and an accumulated inflation of 0.15% were registered.
In the fourth month of the year, the CPI registered a monthly variation of 0.04%, mainly explained by the behavior of transport prices and alcoholic beverages.
From a report by the National Statistics Institute:
The most important inflation levels in April 2018 are the following: monthly inflation was 0.04%, inflation rate was 3.92% and accumulated inflation was -0.32%.[GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with graphs"]
In the third month of the year, the CPI recorded a monthly variation of 0.2%, mainly explained by the behavior of food, health and recreation prices.
From a report by the National Institute of Statistics:
The most important inflation levels of March 2018 are the following: a monthly variation of 0.23% was registered, an interannual variation of 4.14% and an accumulated variation of -0.37%. [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with graph"]