Inflation expectations changed. It was first seen in the Survey of Market Expectations (REM), which shot up from 99% to 110% between March and April. Then came confirmation from INDEC that the consumer price index had an increase of 7.7% in the third month of the year. But what ended up changing the projections for the short term was the instability in the parallel exchange rates in the last two weeks.
With this scenario, the Ministry of Commerce summoned this weekend mass consumption companies such as Unilever, CCU, Mondelez, among others. He also spoke with the chambers that bring together the large supermarket chains, regional retailers and wholesalers. In this dialogue, which took place virtually in more than one case, Matías Tombolini seeks, first of all, that there be a reversal with the “preventive remarks” that they took note of in the last two weeks of the exchange rate run.
Then, in Economics they will have to recalculate the Fair Prices program. Until now, the official plan determined the freezing for 90 days of some 2,000 products and an average increase path of 3.2% for more than 50,000. Something that seems difficult to sustain with the current context. Companies are requesting a review based on the recent skyrocketing of costs implied by the inflationary acceleration at the beginning of this year.
In the Government they advanced to Ámbito that “a new path is being discussed for 90 days”. In this sense, they recognize that “gradually accommodate” the schedule of increases due to the change of context is being analyzed. “We have different scenarios and we are trying to address all the variants,” they explained at the Ministry of Commerce, where They also aim to work with widespread inputs that have a direct impact on manufacturers’ costs..
The surveys of the different consultancies realize that inflation did not show great setbacks last month. In the private sector they put a floor of 7%. In the Government they accept that there will not be a great slowdown with respect to the alarming data of March.
LCG’s measure of food and drink, for example, returned 9.5%. Ecolatina focused on the transfer to prices of the run of the last 15 days in some 6,000 durable goods and detected jumps of 6%. On average, Eco Go, the firm headed by Marina Dal Poggeto, estimates 7.5% for all categories measured by INDEC.
At this time, the Government is focused on limiting the effect on prices of the exchange rate run and on reinforcing reserves. In Argentina, Massa and Tombolini negotiate with local firms and in contact with Washington, the minister, his vice Rubinstein and Leonardo Madcur press with the IMF to advance disbursements, while the green color of the Brazilian flag excites the front page of the Government who hopes to confirm relief from the neighboring country with the help of Lula.
Source: Ambito
