At 2:00 p.m., Casa Rosada reported that Hang was resigning from his post, after a 44-day administration. He was the only man of former Minister Martín Guzmán who maintained his position in the Ministry of Economy. In theory, Hang depended on Daniel Scioli in the Ministry of Productive Development because his transfer had not been signed. In any case, close to Hang they clarified that he was still in office, but they informed who would be his successor: Martín Pollera, trusted man of the current minister, Silvina Batakis.
The news was received with surprise by food companies. Although they expected Hang’s resignation, due to his closeness to Guzmán, they expected it to happen after the renewal of Precious Care. On Wednesday afternoon the complete list was not closed. In fact, some companies had a meeting this Wednesday to finish defining the list. There was still no agreement on basic products: the lack of definitions was due to the fact that they did not agree on the quantity of products and the percentage of increase.
At the end of Wednesday, what was clear is that the Ministry of Domestic Trade had defined average increases of up to 4% per month, when there were companies asking for more than 10%. Another of the confirmations is that it will have fewer products: one of the criteria used by the Secretariat to accept that the list be smaller was for cases in which he considered that consumption “was not from the popular sectors”. Also, due to the request that they moderate the increases of the products that were left out of Care Prices, to avoid the “gap” that is generated between the program and the rest of the gondola.
In any case, the private sector anticipates that the gap could be maintained with the authorized increase percentage. Care Prices increased to June 17%, less than half that of inflation, which only until May accumulated 33.7% in food. Although they considered that Hang had a different treatment from his predecessors, with “better manners”, in practice the “toughness” in the negotiation was the same. A new pricing scheme for dairy products was also being negotiated. There are no details on that point either: the government did not make any statement.
However, the greatest uncertainty is why it will be part of the program and what has already been agreed upon. Although there was only one day left for the renewal, there are companies that consider that the program could change completely: they remembered when Español left, that he had already closed the October 2021 renewal with a 5% increase, and the arrival of Feletti eliminated those terms and culminated in a price freeze for three months.
Another sector where there is concern is in the flour and noodle factories. According to what they said, they sell at a lower value than the market value, because they received funds from a private subsidy. That funding ended and Hang informed them that they would go to a public trust that is financed with the rise in withholdings on soybeans. But in practice, it was not effective, and they had a promise from Hang that he would be in the next few days. Without that subsidy, the companies say that noodles and flour could increase by up to 50%.
The new officials
When they found out, the first thing the companies did was share the CV of the new secretary, Martín Pollera. He is an economist who worked as Undersecretary for policies for development with regional equity, dependent on Batakis in the Ministry of the Interior. He had already worked with her in the province of Buenos Aires, as director of development programs. During the previous government, he served in the municipality of Florencio Varela as Secretary of Industry. The business expectation is that the announcement of the renewal will happen next week, something that has already happened on other occasions, and that does not mean that the program has to be canceled, but rather that it remains in supermarkets and wholesalers.
In 2019, an election year, Pollera was part of the PJ economy commission for the province of Buenos Aires together with Batakis. Feletti was also there and another economist who returns to disembark in the secretariat: Antonio Mezmezianwho was undersecretary of Policies for the internal market during Feletti’s administration, and who was summoned by Pollera to form the team.
Source: Ambito
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