Although for now, the increases continue in Mexico. During the first fortnight of July inflation stood at 8.16%its highest level since January 2001, according to data from the Price and Quotation Index, prepared by the Inegi.
Yáñez ruled out that there is a shortage of merchandise in Mexico, as happened in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic due to the demand for products, and referred that Mexico is one of the countries with the lowest inflationdespite high levels of price increases.
For now, the high prices give a boost to the members of ANTAD, which in July recorded a 15.3% rise in sales of stores that have been in operation for more than a year, also called equal stores. The increase in total stores, which also includes those that opened in the last 12 months, increased by 17.2%.
In the accumulated figure, that is, from January to July, the Association’s stores totaled 709,000 million pesos, a figure that is 6.4% below sales for the same period of 2019, the year prior to the health emergency, when they invoiced 758,000 million pesos.
The weight of pharmacies in the ANTAD
Sales of health-related products strengthen their weight within ANTAD. Last year, sales of pharmacy categoriespersonal care and over-the-counter drug sales (OTC) represent 9.5% of the total income of the Association, which closed at 1.3 billion pesos.
This figure represents an increase in its participation of 7.6% in 2019, the year before the pandemic, according to the data shared by Yáñez during the presentation of the first edition of the Wellmess Health Expo.
Juan Pablo Flores, manager of Economic Studies at ANTAD explained that the personal hygiene category had an increase in sales of 17% last year, when growth was between 6% and 7% prior to the pandemic.
Pharmacy and OTC, which are medicines and products that are purchased without a prescription, grew 12% last year, from 10% in 2019, before the health emergency.
Mexico is in ninth place in the sale of medicines worldwide, and is second in Latin America. The pharmaceutical industry sector represents 7.2% of the manufacturing GDP and 1.2% of the national GDP.