The Secretary of Industry maintained that to control inflation it is also necessary to “follow a fiscal path” and defended Massa’s economic plan
By iProfessional
17/03/2023 – 14,54hs
The Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, Jose Ignacio de Mendigurenmade it clear that “the price agreement by itself does not solve the problem” of inflation and expressed that the reduction of the CPI depends on “a combination” of measures, among them, “going down a path of tax system like the one that Sergio Massa has faced with force”.
After it became known that the price level reached a growth rate of 102.3% per yearDe Mendiguren pointed out that “the price agreement gives you a silver bridge so that you can project the future while those measures take effect.”
On the effectiveness of compliance with the Fair Prices program, launched by the National Government in order to freeze the value of almost 2,000 products of first necessity, indicated that “where it existed, it worked correctly”.
However, he acknowledged that “the problem was all the rest (affected) by the seasonal issue, meat, fruit and vegetables, with this drought and terrible heatthat’s where the biggest deviations came from”.
And, in that sense, he also questioned the supermarkets. “There is also part of the responsibility on the part of the businessman, because at a time like this we have to make the effort together,” he assured in statements to the “Sin Relato” program, hosted by Antonio Fernández Llorente on AM 990.
Consulted by the business reluctance to accept price agreementsDe Mendiguren considered that “it is a mistaken vision, because stability is what gives your company the most value and achieving it implies agreements on prices and quantities”.
José Ignacio de Mendiguren, made it clear that “the price agreement alone does not solve the problem”
De Mendiguren: the solution to the problem of inflation
On the other hand, the former head of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), today in the public sector, “the true fundamental solution to inflation is macro stability, which requires economic growth through exports, because the crisis Argentina’s eternal lack of dollars”. In this regard, he expressed that the Government is “doing everything possible” and recalled the implementation of Non-Reimbursable Contributions (ANR).
“This implies that I give you the credit for you to invest and you do not give it back to me so that the SMEs can export and the SMEs have responded, 12 billion dollars exported the sector in 2022. Now, we are reinforcing that path again, we are attacking the structural problem,” said De Mendiguren. In this sense, he highlighted the growth in foreign sales of the automotive industry, which (according to ADEFA) had an increase of 111% compared to January .
“The month that just passed is a production record, we gave all the incentives to marginal exports, there is the Agribusiness Law, which is stuck in Congress. We are also experiencing a terrible drought, there is no memory of a similar one, we were in the Expo Agro, where We provided a line of credit for the purchase of machinery and fertilizers for producers so that when the drought passes we can start quickly,” he said.
Finally, he responded to the head of the PRO, Patricia Bullrich, who questioned Sergio Massa and anticipated the failure to meet the 60 percent annual inflation goals set by the Minister of Economy. “They are people specialized in bombs, in 2001 they left the biggest bomb that the Argentine economy remembers, then they returned and in 2019 they left a country with 54 percent inflation; defaulted on pesos, something that Argentina never had; and a debt with the IMF that Argentina had no chance of passing,” he closed.
