13 days after the expiry of the Now 12 program, which allows purchases of national products in fixed installments to be financed by credit card for up to 24 days, The Government has just sealed the plan that will replace it and reduces the financing to 3 and 6 installments.
This was confirmed by Clarín, the president of CAME, Alfredo González, after the meeting he had with the production secretary, Pablo Lavigne, in which the agreement was signed.
“The new Now 12 will be in simple installment format, in 3 and 6 installments with a rate that will represent 85% of the reference rate on December 31 and the vast majority of items will be preserved,” he explained.
Since early January the government had been “working against time” on a program to replace and join the outgoing Ahora 12.
The program that would be called Simple fare aims to provide financing in fixed installments and at a subsidized rate for purchases relating to the main consumption items.
For weeks, the Department of Commerce and banks have held meetings in which they tried to define the interest rate that the program will have in this new phase e who will govern from February.
This was the most complex point to conclude the closure of the new program. Today, The nominal annual rate for Now 12 is 82.5%.
Now 12 expires on January 31st and the continuity of a similar program was one of the requests that the companies grouped in the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME) sent to president Javier Milei.
The new program will focus on the retail sector, as CAME commented to this media.
The concern of PMI is the sharp decline in the purchasing power of Argentinesproduct of the constant increase in prices and inflation which closed the year at 211% and which in December stood at 25.5%, the highest peak for over 20 years.
According to the latest report prepared by the CAC (Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services), the Consumption Indicator highlighted that in the month of November there was a decline of 4.1% in the interannual comparison, which implies a seasonally adjusted contraction of the 6.9% compared to October.
The Now 12 programThat born 9 years ago (in September 2014, during the presidency of Cristina Fernández and the management of Axel Kicillof in Economía), is the financing program for the purchase of goods and services, which in its different versions allowed purchasing in 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, from 24 to 30 fixed monthly payments with credit card, and includes a wide range of sectors: household appliances, clothing, footwear and leather goods, bicycles and motorbikes, building materials and tools, furniture, tourism, bookstores books and articles, opticians, toys, technical services, electronics, mobile phones, among others.
By Marcela Marín
Source: Clarin
