The exchange difference with Argentina and the consequent price gap has a strong impact on the fuels, especially in the border area of Uruguay with the neighboring country, where sales fell by up to 40%.
Concern on the Uruguayan coast, far from diminishing, increases every day with the economic evolution of Argentina that, after the electoral triumph of javier milei in the Simultaneous and Compulsory Open Primary (PASO) experience a rapid escalation in the parallel dollar or Dolar blue. This directly impacts the exchange gap that already existed with the neighboring country and that continues to deepen while in Uruguay the dollar returns to operate below 38 pesos.
In this context, the situation of the fuel sales is critical at the border, even despite having the 40% exemption at the Internal Specific Tax (Imesi) with the aim of making prices more competitive.
According to the specialized media Surtidores, today the liter of Nafta Super 95 in Argentina it costs 300 Argentine pesos, which at the current exchange rate is equivalent to just over 14 Uruguayan pesos. In this way, considering the price set by the government for fuels during August —which had the first increase of the year in this item—, the fuel in the neighboring country is 3.6 times cheaper than on the Uruguayan coast, while in the rest of the country the difference amounts to five.
This significant difference in prices means that more and more Uruguayans cross the border to load fuel. “Last Tuesday it was really an explosion of Uruguayans who crossed into Concord from Leap, with vehicles in which they fill their tanks at a price that does not resist the slightest competition from the Uruguayan side, not even with the 40% discount from Imesi”, station sources explained to Surtidores.
The situation caused the decrease in fuel sales to fall back to 40%, a scenario that worries the National Administration of Fuel, Alcohol and Portland (Ancap) About some months ago.
The price gap with Argentina shot up to 199%
The exchange difference with Argentina continues to increase and, after the new shot of the Dolar blue in the neighboring country, the price gap reached at least 199%, according to estimates from the Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU).
From the entity, which in its last survey had measured this indicator at 126% and down in July, they clarified that the price gap it increased after the jump of the US currency in the parallel market of the neighboring country, which jumped 125 Argentine pesos in two days after the primary elections and continues to rise —yesterday it closed at 780 pesos.
“In the last study the gap gave us 126%. If we consider the rise in Dolar blue now, the exchange difference it goes to 199%. It is greatly expanded with the current blue exchange rate,” he assured Telemundo Gimena Abreu, of the Economic Observatory of the UCU.
When evaluating the gap by product, the greatest price difference occurs in the Miscellaneous Goods category (which includes the hygiene basket), where it reaches 233%; followed by Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, with 209%; Household Products, with 179%; and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, with 123%. Besides, Abreu highlighted that “another important category that leads people to cross is the price of the gasoline, diesel and covered, whose difference was 118%”, without counting the value of the Dolar blue current, he specified.
Source: Ambito
