The expectations are even worse for July, according to private consultants, who already mark a floor of 6% for the first month of the Batakis administration. Guzmán’s resignation, unexpected even for the president himself, Alberto Fernández, in the midst of a bullfight, with pressure on financial dollars and the collapse of the debt in pesos, led to a price collapse during the first week of July. In a survey by Ámbito, SMEs stated that they had stopped supplying due to “uncertainty”, while businesses applied strong increases to “take care of the stock”.
In this context, In the first week of July, food inflation climbed to 2.5%, according to the weekly survey carried out by the consulting firm LCG, directed by the economist Guido Lorenzo, which marked an acceleration of 2 points compared to the previous week, when it was 0.5%. While that was the average, there were bigger raises: dairy and eggs climbed 6.5% in just one week, bread, cereals and pasta 4.9%, sugar and cocoa 3.3%, beverages 2.8% and oils 2.4%. The most worrying fact: 34% of the products had increases in the last weekthe highest percentage in the last 22 months.
These raises earned him the Government’s reproach to mass consumption companies, in a meeting held on Friday at the Ministry of Economy. The LCG consultancy surveys prices digitally in the most important supermarkets in the country. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Trade, currently headed by Martín Pollera, detected it in the supermarket price monitoring system that it has in real time (Sipre). The greatest concern is what happens in local businesses, where neither price agreements nor monitoring arrive. After the meeting with the main CEOs of the food companies, the Economy reported that a “monitoring of the evolution of each item” will be carried out. Also, there was a meeting with supermarket owners, who “committed” not to transfer the increasesaccording to an official source.
Despite the changes in authorities, the Ministry of Internal Trade managed to renew the price programs. On Thursday at the last minute Care Prices were renewed, which fell to 949 products within the agreement. Late on Friday, Cortes Cares was also relaunched, the agreement for meat. Nevertheless, the secretariat headed by Pollera has Care Prices without closing. Currently, the program does not include basic basket products on its list, such as milk, yogurt, butter, margarine and cheese, according to the list published on the official Care Prices website. It is about 150 items that have not yet been renegotiated.
According to official sources, the negotiations are advanced and at the beginning of this week there will be news. It is expected that in the case of dairy products, the authorized increases will be higher than the 9% quarterly that was granted to the rest of the basket, to “close the gap” with products outside the program. With a high price dispersion, half of consumers say they look for Care Prices on the shelves as a savings mechanism, although only a third find themaccording to a report from the ShopApp platform.
By 2022, the consultants surveyed by the REM expect inflation accumulated for the whole year of 76%. Since January, it grew by 21 points, given that an annual CPI of 55% was expected. The CEOs of the food companies demanded a solution for imports at the meeting with Batakis, which was also attended by the president of the Central Bank, Miguel Ángel Pesce. After the last provision, they assure that key inputs for production will be missing, which would be another factor that will put pressure on prices, both due to the lack of dollars and the financing cost of borrowing in that currency. However, the case of food is different from that of the automotive industry, in which a modification was reached, an official source clarified. The specific approach was related to olive oilto which a solution is already being sought from the BCRA.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
