Sergio Massa estimated December inflation would be below 5%

Economy Minister Sergio Massa estimated that after inflation of 4.9% in November, the cost of living indicator for December “I would also be with the four ahead”.

“November closes with 4.9% and December, according to the projections of the Secretariat for Economic Planning, would also have the fourth ahead. We’ll see when Indec publishes,” said Massa in an interview published this Sunday by the biweekly Profile.

Massa also said so year 2022 gross product growth to be “well above 5%” and noted that “inflation can be fought and spending can be orderly without chilling the economy and making painful adjustments.”

He stressed that his expectation for 2023 is to “grow by more than three points” and noted that “the path is credit recovery, consumption capacity recovery, and the other big path is income recovery.” .

He insisted his goal is to reach April with a “3-ahead” price index because “inflation is still high.”

“Maintenance of activity level of product growth this year will be well above the four points, three and a half points that most economic advisers and international organizations were forecasting for Argentina. Way above. It will be well above 5%,” Massa stressed.

“The Argentine economy still has room for growth in consumption volumes, in production volumes,” said the minister, indicating that “this year” one of the main items on the agenda is “access to credit” both for SMEs and for consumers.

Fair prices for eight months

Massa added that the Government has asked companies participating in the Fair Prices program “of the production that they have had this year, we would like them to plan for six or seven growth in the supply of goods”. And he confirmed that he intends to extend the plan for four months.

“We have been proposing the program since day one in two stages, four plus four, in eight months“, he explained.

As far as the foreign exchange market is concerned, Massa said that his objective “is to build a path that will lead us to a regime of normalization of exchange rates and access to the capital market”.