Argentina Consumer: Scientia Data June-26: Beer Wins the Match, Consumers Still Struggles

Research evidence excerpt

Argentina Consumer: Scientia Data June-26: Beer Wins the Match, Consumers Still Struggles

Viewpoint |

26 Jul 2026 22:43:03 ET │ 14 pages

Argentina Consumer

Scientia Data June-26: Beer Wins the Match, Consumers Still

Struggles

Renata Cabral AC

CITI'S TAKE +55-11-4009-7561

Argentina's June consumption data weakens the recovery narrative that had renata.cabral@citi.com

started to emerge after May. Total mass consumption declined 2.7%YoY, Luis Felipe Terzariolworsening from -1.6%YoY in May and bringing the 1H26 decline to 2.9%YoY,

despite a significantly more benign inflation backdrop. In our view, the +55-11-4009-3564

latest data reinforces that lower inflation alone is proving insufficient to luis.terzariol@citi.com

reignite broad-based consumer demand. The notable exception remains Nicolas Sherling

beverages, with alcoholic beverages (+9.4%YoY) and non-alcoholic +56-2-2873-6764beverages (+3.5%YoY) materially outperforming the broader basket. While

beer demand likely benefited from the Global Football Tournament, with nicolas.sherling@citi.com

resilience also on non-alcoholic beverages. Overall, the data is supportive

for Ambev heading into Q2 earnings but provides little evidence that the

broader staples environment is meaningfully improving.

Category: Global Football tournament Boosts Beer, But Beverages Stand Out

More Broadly. Beverages once again outperformed the rest of the basket. Alcoholic

beverages increased 9.4%YoY, outperforming total mass consumption by 12.1

percentage points, likely benefiting from the matches. More importantly, non-

alcoholic beverages also posted solid 3.5%YoY growth, exceeding the broader

basket by 6.2 percentage points. By contrast, traditional food categories remained