A report by the consulting firm Scentia revealed that mass consumption grew in August despite the fact that that month saw the highest inflation in the last 32 years. The growth is largely explained by the rise in sales in supermarkets, which recorded a sharp jump the week after the primary elections.   According to the report published by Ámbito, the increase in sales volume was 5.2% higher than that of August 2022. “The growth, although high and even unexpected, is explained by the great performance of the Supermarkets channel. . Although this channel has been positive for several months and is already compared to high bases in 2022, it continues to gain traffic and increase its sales,” the consultancy explained.   The study highlighted a 24.4% increase in sales in supermarkets in the week of August 14 to 20, after the PASO. This jump would indicate that many consumers chose to anticipate the price increase that the devaluation of the official dollar was going to generate.   As indicated by the Scalabrini Ortíz Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESO), the devaluation demanded by the International Monetary Fund within the framework of the renegotiation of the debt that Mauricio Macri took on in 2018 generated "that weekly inflation went from 1. 3% to 4.8%" the week after the PASO. In addition, on Wednesday, August 16, prices in supermarkets had a daily increase of 2.6%, when the previous average rate was 0.2%.   Scentia also revealed that sales in supermarkets grew 14.1% year-on-year in August, while in nearby supermarkets they fell 3.2%. “The situation between GBA and Interior for supermarkets is relatively similar, and the retraction of Self-service in GBA is very marked (-21.6%),” the firm explained. “All the baskets were positive in Supermarkets and only three positive in Self-services (food, perishables and impulsive items),” they detailed.   In the first eight months of the year, mass consumption accumulated an increase of 0.2%, according to Scentia. The gap between the different channels is also notable in this comparison: while supermarkets grew by 8.2%, in self-service stores the drop is 6.8%.