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This Tuesday the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini, announced a new price agreement. It will be a basket of 6 fruits and vegetables with regulated prices, which will be present in AMBA supermarkets. The prices will remain fixed for a month, and at the end of March they will be updated. This happens, said the official, because “this is biology, not mathematics”, referring to the climatic phenomena that impact the sector.
“The sector showed a very high upward volatility, we understood that we had to take some course of action to be able to moderate these increases,” Tombolini said during the announcement. It is that during the last year, seasonal products were those that showed the greatest variations in the category of food and beverages. Fruits climbed 135.3% in the last year, according to the last interannual data for January from INDEC, while vegetables did so in 144.7%, against an inflation of 98.8% in the same period.
60% guideline
When he took office last August, the inflation inherited by Economy Minister Sergio Massa was 7.4%. Massa’s goal was to drop 1 point every 2 months. In September and October, monthly inflation was around 6%, and for November and December it was 5%. However, the January-February two-month period cut official aspirations.
January inflation was 6%, and February will be similar, as projected by all private consultants, and then March is a seasonally high inflation month. Asked on Pública TV about whether the April goal of inflation “starting with the number 3” has already been ruled out, Tombolini stated: “Hopefully the April goal will be achieved, but our goal is annual, with a goal of 60%which is going to arrive with a downward price dynamic”.
The secretary assured that this first two-month period was marked above all by the increase in regulated prices, such as tariffs, which “have an impact in the first and second round.” In order to meet the 60% goal, he assured that the roadmap will be to reduce the fiscal deficit and accumulate reserves, with the difficulty that the drought brings, but he also asked for the support of business leaders and unions. “You have to work on a downward path and consistent with a salary guideline that allows you to buy a little more each time than the previous month. The labor movement and the government are on the side of the solution, the companies have to choose which side they are on”, he stated.
During the announcement of the fruit and vegetable agreement, Tombolini mentioned the “benefit” of imports given to companies that enter into price agreements: “You can count on the State to build predictability, we have a special regime built for the banana importing sector that allowed us to work on a price agreement”.
sticks and carrots
However, in a survey carried out by Ámbito in private companies, they affirmed that the SIRA approval “It does not have the fluency that it should have.” Meanwhile, the Secretary of Commerce of José Ignacio “Vasco” de Mendiguren prepares to launch a credit for companies within Fair Priceswith rates more than 30 points below market rates.
The big question that companies ask themselves is what will happen to the supply of the program if inflation continues at 6% per month, with authorized increases of 3.2% until July. Trade is anticipated and has already been carried out fines for $120 million in the last semesterand this week they will intimidate the most important soft drink company for selling a price different from the one regulated in local shops, where the Government cannot relieve in real time as it does with supermarkets.
“The will to accompany is there, but if the macro is still far from the 3.2% guideline, there is a conversation that we are going to have to have, because otherwise the program is going to start to creak everywhere,” they told from a company of mass consumption. “Today it is the question that nobody dares to put on the table, but it is what is coming, because the costs and the exchange rate do not move to 3%,” they told another company. From a supermarket they affirmed that Fair Prices is not working “from anchor”, and they assure that the thermometer will go by how what is outside the program moves.
Source: Ambito
