ATMs yield clues to Argentine growth.

An interesting clue to the stability of consumer spending in Argentina emerges from recent statistics on the expansion of ATMs in the country. ATM use has been growing along with the economy, but only recently have Argentine banks moved back into profitability. This development was one of the key factors that supports growth in the installed base of ATMs, according to a May 8, 2007 posting on the ATM Marketplace (Louisville, KY USA) website, which is an aggregator of news about the ATM industry.

Sales of ATM units in Argentina have doubled since 2005. The website quotes an official of one of the biggest foreign companies that sells ATMs to Argentina as saying, "It seems like this year [2007] will be even better."

At the end of 2006, there were 7,362 ATMs in Argentina. ATM Marketplace cites as its source a national association of foreign banks. A personal banking manager quoted in the story said that the number of ATMs would likely increase 40 percent by 2010. That forecast was approximately corroborated by an official of a 4,100 unit Argentine ATM network who said that deployment growth would happen at an average rate of 10 percent per year by 2010.

Given Argentina's financial troubles at the start of the new millennium, an official of another foreign ATM supplier told ATM Marketplace that he was surprised that the market was growing so fast.

Other factors influencing the growth of ATMs in Argentina include a spurt of lending to the private sector of 38.5 percent between February 2006 and February 2007. The website said, "Industry insiders say consumer lending and credit-card financing, which has contributed to more ATM usage, has pushed the country's loan recovery."

Because of overall economic growth-the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Argentine GDP expanded 8.5 percent in 2006, will expand another 7.5 percent in 2007, and is likely to expand 5.5 percent in 2008-banks have been building more brick-and-mortar bank branches. This move also contributes to the deployment of ATMs.

As private consumption expands, ATMs will increasingly move off premises to "malls, supermarkets, gas stations, railway stations, airports and tourist sites."

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