This year the trade is expected to bill $ 2.017 million more than in the 2020 holidays.
The Small business and the ventures, who lost half of their sales during 2020, are the greatest beneficiaries of the greater economic activity during the Christmas holidays of 2021.
According to estimates by the Quito Chamber of Commerce, this year it is expected that the billing from December add $ 20,828 million, which represents $ 2,017 million more than what was achieved in the festivities 2020.
The levels will also be higher than those of 2019, but to a lesser extent. Two years ago, sales reached $ 20,004. In other words, the economy will have a movement very similar to the prepandemic one.
A study carried out by the Research Department of the Universidad Tecnológica Empresarial de Guayaquil (UTEG) established that 53.4% of the homes, despite the continuing economic crisis, they plan to maintain or increase their christmas consumption with respect to previous years.
This rebound of consumption, according to the economist Lorena Mendoza, has a greater impact on small businesses and entrepreneurs, due to the fact that sales from December They represent about 40% of annual income.
“So far, sales in these sectors have grown between 30% and 40% compared to 2020. Although these revenues do not cover everything lost during the first onslaught of the pandemic, they do represent the possibility of closing this year with better prospects, ”he said.
Andrea Rubio, owner of a clothing store in the north of Quito, assured that the sales have emerged in the last month, because many people stopped buying things during the factivities from last year.
“There is a dammed demand that is now being seen. We have also had to offer discounts and promotions to attract more customers; but the final balance is positive, although not enough to recover everything lost by the pandemic, “he said.
Informality is reduced
One of the factors for the increase in sales and the economic activity it is the backward movement of informality. According to the latest report from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), between November 2020 and November 2021, the number of Ecuadorians in the underemployment and another type of precarious work It went from 5’300.075 to 5’186.304.
In other words, 113,771 people left the informal sector of the economy and went on to earn at least $ 400 a month.
Also, the number of unemployed it also fell from 460,345 to 374,124.
The final effect, according to INEC, is that a little more than 530,000 Ecuadorians joined the call suitable employment in the last twelve months.
In this sense, in the last 30 days, hand in hand with the approach of Christmas, the labor market took a leap; But Mendoza stressed that victory should not be claimed because it can be a temporary effect.
“The holidays drive so-called seasonal jobs. We have to wait to see if the recovery is maintained in the first quarter of 2022. The positive is that the economy is moving more and there are more people working on formality ”, he concluded. (JS)
Import of toys grew 33%
Despite the international problems with logistics and transportation, the import of toys grew 33% in 2021. Last year, with more restrictions and less commercial movement, the purchase of toys abroad, to sell them within the country, added $ 37 million. Now the figure reached $ 49 million through October 2021.
81% of that amount, that is, a little more than $ 40 million, comes from China; second is the United States with $ 2 million; and, in third place is Spain with $ 1.19 million.
Despite the recovery, the figures are still far from the $ 88 million imported in 2019, which was the highest level reached in the last 7 years.
The most popular toys are pistols, plastic dolls and stuffed animals.
