Companies ‘saved’ more than S / 9.5 billion due to the rise in the dollar

On July 30, the dollar beat all forecasts and reached S / 4,070 in the middle of the political uncertainty. This Wednesday, with the ministerial changes, the greenback has already fallen to S / 3,975.

However, this scenario was not in the plans of many companies that carry out transactions with the greenback.

Thus, there was talk of winners and losers, especially in economic activities dedicated to foreign trade.

Likewise, there was talk of a possible ‘savings’ on the part of companies.

For Juan Carlos Mathews, former vice minister of Mype, this depended a lot on the type of company and how it had its income; that is, the currency in which it is generated.

“If it was an export company, it could have benefited because the income is in dollars and it was an important advantage. The opposite happened with an importing company because it had to buy dollars to pay its supplier, “said the former public official to The Republic.

For his part, Rafael Zacnich, manager of Economic Studies of ComexPeru, denied to this newspaper, that the soles obtained by the companies could have been classified as a ‘savings’.

“What you could see in the short term is not a ‘savings’, it is extraordinary income that companies registered in their accounts associated with a high exchange rate,” explained the leader.

Along the same lines, the researcher warned that companies did not gain internal competitiveness or against the rest of the world, it was only about the situation.

Determining the ‘savings’

Zacnich acknowledged that the income of the companies has been associated with the price of minerals and the great rise in exports of manufacturing agro-exports. We could see this in the collection.

In accordance with Comex, between January-July 2021, Peruvian exports totaled US $ 29,086 million, a simple exercise details us that, with an exchange rate of S / 3.80, this would represent S / 110,526 million. A week ago, when the dollar was trading at approximately S / 4.13, it represented a value of S / 120,125 million. In that case we would speak of an exchange rate gain of more than S / 9,599 million.

Meanwhile, Mathews said that the “savings” of companies will be subject to discipline and the margin they may have.

“If you have high debts, your income will probably only serve to keep the company running and pay the debt. But if you have more attractive margins, you will see a differential that can be a ‘savings’ that the company can have in a situation of this type “, he graph.

Despite this, the specialist assured that companies have presented a margin of between 20% and 30%.

“That is a good level of savings. Normally it is smaller ”, it emphasized.