The Secretary of Energy of the Nation, Flavia Royon and the Secretary of Commerce Matías Tombolini, presented the new agreement that the government reached with the oil companies so that the fuels are part of the Fair Prices Program. According to officials, the goal is to “protect consumers and foster stability in the market.”
The companies that signed the agreement to include the fuels at fair prices are YPF, PAE (Axion), Raízen (Shell) and Trafigura, with the Puma brand. For the Secretary of Energy, “This requires an effort from the companies”, and the state that is already doing it, to “contain prices and anchor inflationary expectationsto avoid an impact on people’s pockets”.
Matías Tombolini understands that the agreement “It will allow consumers and companies to give a signal of predictability”, and accompanies the “road map”, established by the Minister of Economy Sergio Massa to maintain fiscal balance and take care of reserves. In the last four months, monthly inflation was 5.1% in December, 6% in January, 6.6% in February, and according to private estimates, 7% is expected for March.
In the announcement for the inclusion of the fuels in the Fair Prices, Representatives of the oil companies were present, such as the manager of External and Government Relations of Raízen Argentina, Alejandro Cerviño; Agustín Agraz, Vice President of Institutional Relations at Pan American Energy; Alejandro Fernández, from YPF and Martín Urdapilleta, general manager of Trafigura.
Although the agreement establishes monthly increases of 4%, at the end of the quarter the total increase will reach 17%, due to the fact that the adjustments will not be calculated on a fixed base price, but will be cumulative, according to the statement.
