Argentina: Postal service shrinking

The Argentinian postal service sector is changing as a result of recent new regulatory policy. The sector, controlled by the Comision Nacional de Comunicaciones (CNC), featured 208 operators at the end of last year, 39 fewer than at the close of 2004, according to a report put together by Aeca, the chamber of commerce which groups together the 23 biggest private postal operations in Argentina.

This 18.8% reduction in the total number of players is the first and most obvious result of the regulatory policy emitted in May 2005 aimed at rooting out informal operations. Letter-sending rose 9.9% in 2005 to reach a total of 1.38 million whilst sectorial turnover rose 24.36% to over PesoD1.558bil in 2005.