Until the end of the week, the Ministry of Internal Trade held negotiations with the banks for the officialization of its new version. The entities that group the businesses were waiting for the program to be renewed with a slight increase in current rates and for key items such as cell phones to be added, which had been excluded in the latest version of the program. However, the Cell phones were once again left out of the installment plans.
The banks requested an increase of 17.5 percentage points in the nominal annual interest rate (TNA) of the program, up to 42.5%, but finally a nominal annual rate of 31% was agreed for the terms of 3, 6 and 12 installments, and 36% for 18 and 24 installments.
According to the monitoring carried out from the Ministry of Productive Development, “a sustained increase” in the use of financing in 24 fixed installments by consumers was detected. However, “there was evidence of a low incidence” in the use of the 30 installments, with which the Government decided to eliminate this financing modality, “in order to allocate the resources of the aforementioned NOW 12 Program, towards new benefits and scope, relevant to strengthen consumption, promote national production and generate employment.
Although no new items were added, there was a modification in two that have a cap: glasses and contact lenses go from $15,000 thousand to 20,000; and motorcycles, whose final price may not exceed $300,000, whereas before the limit was $250,000.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Productive Development, Now 12 closed 2021 with a historical record: the level of billing and the volume of operations grew substantially in year-on-year terms, 85% and 25% respectively. The billing level throughout 2021 for sales of the aforementioned initiative was 944 million pesos and the number of operations was 71.5 million.
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