He Secretary for Economic Policy, Gabriel Rubinsteinreferred to the extremely high inflation in March and assured that work will continue to lower it next month.
The official announced that the government will continue “trying to lower inflation by combining fiscal and monetary policies.”
Together with these measures, “income policies (in agreement with companies and others) are implemented, which help to curb the inertial aspects of inflation rates,” he said in a statement on his Twitter account, after INDEC gave release the price index for March.
The official explained: “In March, the Consumer Price Index (#CPI) rose 7.7% compared to February. The seasonal segment rose 9.3%, the regulated segment 8.3%, and the core CPI (without regulated or seasonal), rose 7.2%”.
After this, he highlighted the incidence of particular aspects, “which tend to increase at this time of year” such as education, 29.1%; fruits, 14.2% and vegetables, 9.1%to which clothing was added due to season change issues”.
“During the first quarter, the drought, the high temperatures and the avian flu” They were the ones that “generated the greatest impact” on the prices of fruits, vegetables, chicken and eggs, “which together contributed 2.1%” to inflation in March.
In March, the Consumer Price Index (#IPC) rose 7.7% compared to February. The “seasonal” segment rose 9.3%, the “regulated” segment 8.3%, and the core CPI (without regulated or seasonal) rose 7.2%. pic.twitter.com/z2Q6iPUBYg– Secretariat of Economic Policy (@Politicaecon_ar) April 14, 2023
These factors also “influenced increases of 11.5% in beef and 26.7% in chicken with a significant incidence” in the Consumer Price Index.
“If we consider core inflation and subtract meat, the rise would have been 6.5%, which is also a very high figure,” and concluded that several of these factors will not be present in April “so we would expect a decline of a certain magnitude in the general index”.
What did the Government say after the inflation data from INDEC?
A few hours after INDEC released the Consumer Price Index (CPI), corresponding to the month of March, the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini, led a press conference in order to give explanations. over 7.7% inflation, which fell like a bucket of cold water on the Frente de Todos.
Among the arguments, the official from the Ministry of Economy recalled “the worst drought since 1992”, that the Argentine agricultural producers suffered; seasonal prices as “education and hotels” in March and blamed the “price makers” for adding more than 2% to last month’s inflation rate.
Tombolini and Cerruti: those who gave explanations after the inflation data
The Secretary of Commerce, and member of the Ministry of Economy, Matías Tombolini, led a press conference this Friday in order to give explanations about the alarming inflation data that INDEC published this afternoon and that reflects almost 8% inflation during the 31 days of March.
“It is a data that hurts us. The month of March is a month that seasonally presents a particular behavior. Education, clothing, also hotels and restaurants present increases above the usual. The worst drought since 1992 boosted the index by 2.1% that we just met. 9.7% of food and beverages also has to do with price makers,” pointed out the Sergio Massa official.
Hours before, the spokesperson for President Alberto Fernández, Gabriela Cerruti, expressed herself through her traditional channel: Twitter. In this sense, she assured: “The number we see today represents the worst moment of the impact of the war on international prices and the worst drought in history in the country. We know, it hurts us, it occupies us, how it affects daily life and each family.” And he added: “We are redoubling our efforts, convinced that the path is to sustain the growth and order that we are achieving. And we know that most analyzes show us that this was the worst moment and it started a downward trend which we hope to see reflected soon”.
