The agreements in force within the program of Fair Prices -which expired on the 15th of this month- they are extended for one week, and later they will be reviewed and renewed, according to sources from the Palacio de Hacienda to Ambit.
In this sense, it is expected that the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, Together with your team of collaborators, dedicate this coming Friday to analyze how to continue with the price policy, along with other issues on the economic agenda.
So far, the companies have not held meetings with the authorities to analyze the future of the pricing policy, an issue that has generated uncertainty for them, given the proximity of the expiration of the last agreement.
In the industry media it is commented that companies face increasing difficulties to stay within the scheme if the increases suffered by costs are not contemplated.
It should be remembered that June was the last time the food basket controlled by the authorities, when it was established a monthly guideline of 3.8% for a set of 2,000 mass consumption products and 5% for the remaining categories. In addition, there is a freezing of certain durable goods at the values in force as of last May.
The directors of the companies point out that there are problems derived from the difficulties to make imports to which is added the increase in the cost of external purchases resulting from the recent application of taxes. In this regard, from the economic leadership they indicate that the Secretary of Commerce excluded 66 products from the basic basket of the obligation to pay the 7.5% tax on imports.
In addition, the businessmen maintain, The establishment of the agricultural dollar at 340 pesos impacts the cost of inputs from different chains.
These measures, say private analysts, result in an acceleration of inflation. Private estimates foresee an increase for the price index for last July of the order of 7% (inflation calculated by the City of Buenos Aires was 7.3%) and of the order of 8% for the current month.
Source: Ambito
