The Argentine Industrial Union has strongly questioned the national government, after the decision of the announcement of a new price freeze by the Minister of the Economy, Sergio Massa, together with the idea of investigating the costs and margins of profit of over 15 mass companies. consumption to cause unjustified price increases and abusive practices.
“It is not the way freeze prices or threaten companies, but work with companies and all sectors to tame inflation “, said Daniel Funes de Rioja talking to Rivadavia radio.
The head of the UIA appealed to a phrase that is already his kind of mantra and said that the business sector is the consequence and not the cause of inflation in Argentina. He said that the constant increase in prices has a strong impact on production and generates a marginal economy.
“Every time an index spread approaches there is more nervousness. Let dialogue prevail and the path of production, especially the industrial one with consumption, employment and export “, added the entrepreneur.
It is that in a few days we will know the number of inflation for the month of October, where food prices will have a strong impact on the data released by INDEC.
The provision to investigate the companies was formalized on Tuesday, for which the Competition Defense will have 30 days to prepare a report on the behavior of the companies.
In that period the office (which depends on Tombolini) has to check two things. The first is if a dominant firm harms its competitors through price formation. And the second, if its cost structure justifies the values of some products.
“The defense of competition has roles within the rule of law for the exercise of roles, they cannot exercise it with discretion. The whole sector is subject to the controls established by law, but we hope it does not commit any kind of abuse”, He observed Funes from Rioja.
The business leader stressed that inflation “is overwhelming for everyone” and called for “serious policies” from the executive to combat it.
“There is an internal market that we are interested in maintaining, not annihilating because it has no purchasing power, because it has taxes, because energy increases, those imported with a complexity that notoriously generates production distortions. We are in trouble”, he listed. , also the leader of Copal.
Finally, he reflected that the exporting business sector is needed for the acquisition of foreign currency, one of Massa’s concerns for strengthening the Central Bank’s weak reserves.
“This return to the old conceptions on the subject … We are pragmatic and heterodox, but concrete and decisive. The lowering of inflation begins with the fiscal balance, the monetary question and the work in an orderly state and that the private sector can develop without bureaucracy “, concluded Funes de Rioja.
Source: Clarin
