With some delay, finally the Government Yesterday, a new basket of 1,974 base leaders was announced (food, drinks, toiletries and cleaning), which will have fixed prices until the end of June. The list is part of the second phase of Pricing Fair, and was finalized on Tuesday evening, after intense negotiations with 108 companies in the consumer goods sector.
The novelty is that around 65% of the products were already in the previous “frozen” basket, launched in November last year. To compensate for the price delay of the last 3 months of high inflation and ensure its continuity in the program, the Secretary of Commerce, led by Matías Tombolini, authorized “exceptional” increases of between 4 and 9%commercial sources agree.
The official list of the fixed price basket was published yesterday at noon on the website of the Ministry of Commerce. It is considered as one of the pillars of this new amplified version of Fair Pricesthat since February sets a limit on monthly increases of 3.2% for 49,832 products in 15 categories (consumer goods, footwear, mobile phones, sports shoes, construction materials and textiles, among others).
Yesterday afternoon Tombolini specified it in radio statements an agreement was reached with 532 companies(“Friday it was 480”, as he clarified), which will have priority access to reserve dollars (the cheapest on the market) to pay for imports.
However, there is still a long way to go to dispel doubts about the package of measures announced this Friday by the Minister of the Economy, Sergio Massa, in a crowded event at the CCK in the presence of managers, entrepreneurs, trade unionists and municipal officials. There he invoked the need to chart “a price path” to fight inflation through fair prices.
Without going any further, the new basket with frozen prices was released hours later clarion exclusively publish that the relaunch of Precios Justos generated doubts and confusion in companies and commercial chains, due to lack of detail on the scope and resources that make up the program. They say they have not signed anything yet and that, in some cases, they are even unaware of the products achieved by the program.
From the Government they explain that, in principle, the agreements are practically closed and that All that remains is to formalize the agreements with the companies, with the signature required. “Since a lot of items have been added, this can take between 15 and 20 days,” they apologised.
The same happens with the products of the new fixed-price basket: “The chains have already been informed but the products will arrive on the gondolas throughout this week”, explained an official source. However, the main concern of suppliers is not that universe, but the new guideline for maximum increases for all products, which have dropped from 4 to 3.2%.
The concern has to do with rising prices in recent weeks. In December, inflation was 5.1% e in January I would go up another stepdespite efforts and regulations to establish reference prices, as Massa and Tombolini claim.
In the first month of the year, the cost of living rose to 7.3% in the Capital, the highest level since July 2022. In the GBA, according to Ecolatina, prices increased by an average of 6.4%. Next week, INDEC will release nationwide data, which according to consultants will fluctuate between 5.5% and 6%, in contrast to Massa’s own forecast (less than 4% in April) and the 60% pattern for the entire year established by the Budget Law.
Source: Clarin
