Friday, February 3, 2023 | 4:22 p.m.
The government launched this Friday the expansion of Fair Prices, which includes fifteen consumer sectors with a guideline of 3.2% monthly price increases until June 30, in a voluntary agreement reached with more than 480 producing and trading companies.
In this new stage, the agreement includes mass consumption -with 2,000 products at a fixed price and another 50,000 that will increase 3.2% per month on average-, clothing, footwear, home and construction; cell phones, small appliances, education, school basket, industrial inputs, textiles, motorcycles, bicycles, medicines and catalog sales.
More than 480 producing and marketing companies participate in the voluntary agreement, which will run until June 30.
When making the announcement at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK), Economy Minister Sergio Massa said that Fair Prices intends to give “certainty” to a set of products that represent “86% of the products that Argentines consume.”
“There are almost 50,000 products that from February 1 to June 30 are going to increase only 3.2% per month,” said Massa.
He added that “another certainty is that, as occurred in the first stage of the program, there are 2,000 products that will continue to have a fixed price, which allows the consumer to take care of their salary when choosing in the supermarket gondola “.
The minister assured that this stage “has more rewards and punishments,” and indicated that the companies that participate voluntarily “will have a credit program” at a subsidized rate to finance “the increase in the production of capital goods.”
“Inflation, the worst poison”
In turn, the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini, said that “this guideline of 3.2% per month is an objective that essentially seeks to moderate inflation expectations to improve the purchasing power of those who live on a salary.”
He affirmed that “inflation is the worst poison that an economy has, because it is a loss of value of the currency, salary, patrimony and because it also means that there are no rules.”
“This challenge calls on all of us to be part of the solution and not of the problem, in order to comply with this voluntary agreement in which the objective is that each month that passes, those who live on a salary can buy a little more than the previous month, that salaries beat prices in Argentina,” he concluded.
School basket and private school fees
Massa announced a school basket for the start of classes and a single criterion for the increase in fees for private schools with a path of 3.5% per month until June 30.
The official said that “some provinces had authorized increases of up to 40% for March,” and that now “a single criterion has been established for the entire country, which will be announced next Wednesday at the Federal Education Council, which drops by 40 % on average the initial increase and establishes until June 30 a path of 3.5% in the case of schools”.
