BUENOS AIRES.- Javier Milei’s government repealed nearly 70 regulations on controlled of marketingsupply and other bureaucratic demands on the private sector in its eagerness to deregulate Argentine economy and promote free competition.
The Ministry of Commerce repealed 69 provisions that were under its purview, some imposed since the late 1990s, with the objective of “deepening market freedom, promoting the spontaneous interaction of supply and demand as a way of ordering and reactivation of the economy, facilitating the functioning of markets and internal and external trade.”
Among the rules eliminated are the “Careful Prices” program which established reference prices for mass consumption products and another maximum price for basic basket products.
At the same time, it freed supermarkets from having to inform the Ministry of Commerce about the average weekly variation in prices and freed meat stores from reporting weekly on prices and quantities sold.
“These tools only served to distort the pricing system, mainly for food and beverages in our country,” the official agency indicated.
Argentina reported monthly inflation of 25.5% in December and closed 2023 with a year-on-year variation of 211.4%, the worst measurement in the last 32 years.
To relieve the private sector of bureaucracy, the Ministry of Commerce eliminated information requirements related to the cost of services that governed private educational institutions and private medical service providers, items that have a strong impact on the increase in the cost of living.
The populist governments that preceded Milei considered that the profitability of companies should be in balance with the purchasing power of the majority of the population and in this sense they set a limit on quota increases, as a clear example of state intervention on the economy that Milei intends to combat.
From now on, private schools and universities and prepaid medicine providers will no longer have the obligation to inform the authorities of the value of the monthly fee that is set freely.
Milei is confident that inflation will begin to subside in the second quarter of the year to the extent that it can carry out its economic reforms. Part of his plan is bogged down in Congress due to the opposition’s refusal to validate several of his initiatives.
Source: With information from AP
