BUENOS AIRES: After stuttering through two years of recession and three months of grim coronavirus lockdown, many businesses in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires have had enough and are closing their doors.
“I made the decision to auction off the contents and with the capital that comes from the sale, pay the staff and get rid of the business,” Ricardo Klausner told AFP outside his restaurant Latekla.
“The quarantine gave me time to mourn and today I actually feel very relieved.”
Klausner operated his restaurant for 26 years, employing seven people. “We had one of the worst Christmases in history in terms of consumption. The summer was also very bad and then we started with the pandemic. Once the coronavirus ends, the crisis will continue.
“People cook at home, save, take care of their money, because they don’t know what the future holds for them,” he said.
According to a survey by the Federation of Commerce and Industry of Buenos Aires (FECOBA), at least 18 percent of the 110,000 businesses in the capital have shut down since the lockdown began.
Hotels, gyms, car wash services and hairdressers have yet to be given permission to open up, and restaurants have been authorized only for deliveries, which has reduced their profits by 25 percent.
“By the time it is decided to resume activity, 25 — 35 percent of businesses will have disappeared, leaving a string of unemployed, having been made defunct by the state because it was impossible to pay taxes,” said Fabian Castillo, FECOBA’s president.
