The price gap between Uruguay and Argentina was drastically reduced hand in hand with the effects that the government’s measures Javier Milei are having on the economy of the neighboring country.
According to the latest report of the Border Price Indicator (IPF) made by the UCU Salto Economic Observatory and to which he agreed AmbitDuring March, Salto was barely 50% more expensive than Concordia, which represents a decrease of 47.07% compared to the previous measurement in January (97.4%).
The price gap is the smallest since the pre-pandemic: the last IPF prior to it corresponds to April 2019 and was 43.1%. And it represents less than half of that registered a year ago, when Uruguay It was 127% more expensive than Argentina.
The category of Food and non-alcoholic beverageswhich has the highest weighting in the indicator carried out by economists María José Medin and Gimena Abreu, the price difference was significantly reduced from 93% to 46% in just two months. These are values not seen since 2018.
The second most important price gap in the Border Price Indicator is that of Alcoholic beverages and cigarettes where the decrease was 50% to stand at 71% during the last month.
The category Home furniture which during 2023 was where the greatest price difference in favor of Argentina registered had a drop of 60%: Salto is still more expensive, but it is 51% when at the beginning of the year it was 119.5%.
The division that fell the least was Meals outside the home. On the contrary, it has the largest price differential in the series, 126%. “The gaps in the prices of soft drinks and mineral water stand at 81% and 32% respectively, while for the full hamburger and the family pizza with mozzarella, the differences are 183% and 155%,” the report states. .
In any case, the report from the UCU Salto Economic Observatory includes the increase in the cost of living in Argentina as a consequence of the devaluation that the Milei government imposed on the exchange rate and the depreciation of the Dolar blue –the exchange rate used for the comparison- whose gap with the official dollar is barely 20%.
Source: Ambito
