For Santa Fe's small and medium-sized companies, debt can no longer be explained solely by the decisions made by each individual business. APYME Santa Fe president Mario Galizzi argued that the combination of scarce credit, rising costs and a shrinking domestic market has created a “systemic debt” that threatens the continuity of production. His argument shifts the issue from individual balance sheets to the way the economy operates as a whole.
The term describes a chain that begins in both businesses and households. When a growing share of family income goes toward interest payments, less money remains to buy goods and services; that contraction returns directly to SMEs, whose activity depends heavily on domestic consumption. In this reading, one group's debt reduces another group's sales and increases the difficulty of meeting new obligations.
Conditions that discourage investment are accumulating on top of that weakened market. Galizzi listed high interest rates, increased utility and logistics costs, and changing rules that prevent long-term planning. He also said trade liberalization exposes local companies to products made in countries where production or transportation receives varying levels of subsidies, creating competition that he regards as unequal.
The impact is no longer confined to postponed projects. The business leader linked the current situation to company closures and rising unemployment, two developments that further erode purchasing power and deepen the cycle of lower consumption. Although he stressed that SME owners remain willing to invest, he said that decision requires predictability and access to financing, not individual initiative alone.
Within that sequence, the seizure of a checking account becomes a breaking point. Galizzi warned that when an SME loses access to its account, it may stop paying wages and suppliers, disrupting the payment chain that sustains its daily operations. A measure intended to collect a debt can therefore hasten the closure of the productive unit on which repayment itself depends.
APYME Santa Fe has responded to that pressure by providing legal advice to business owners and workers seeking to renegotiate obligations and protect their assets. The organization proposes that negotiations should not be conducted in isolation, because it believes collective action changes the balance of power with the financial system. That support offers immediate protection, while the broader demand is to restore credit and planning instruments.
Galizzi connected that demand with the province's knowledge infrastructure. He cited the international recognition earned by two companies linked to the National University of the Littoral and the Technology Hub as the product of decades of scientific investment and public-private cooperation, and warned that cuts to that system also affect SME development. The unresolved debate, therefore, goes beyond refinancing debt: it concerns how to sustain the domestic market, credit, science and production at the same time.
