MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine President announces measures to curb inflation

The government will not give up its price-control policies

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Friday announced through a recorded message from the Olivos Residence the creation of a “stabilization fund.” The head of state's words came on the day he had promised the fight against inflation would begin.

Fernández also highlighted the approval in Congress of the refinancing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and praised the fact that it had been achieved through “consensus” from lawmakers “from different political forces.”

“It is a special moment because we reached this law with the consensus of the legislators. The agreement obtained an overwhelming majority in both chambers of Congress. But we got this far with the consensus and support of governors, businessmen, unions, organizations, and leaders of many social sectors who understood the seriousness of the moment”, the President said.

“We have had ten consecutive years with double-digit inflation. When I took office in December 2019, Argentina had an inflation rate of around 54% per year,” he added.

“Solving the problem of inflation in Argentina requires us to review our experience, to understand its complexity, and to find a way out in which we all commit ourselves,” he went on.

“To attack it we must accumulate reserves, improve public credit, decouple domestic prices from international prices, work on income and price policies at the same time and take a battery of measures in which multiple actors are essential,” he further explained.

The President also stressed that the increase in the price of wheat “would increase the production costs of bread, noodles, and flour that millions of Argentines consume.”

Fernández also warned about the international crisis' impact on households everywhere “with unusual increases in the basic food basket.”

“I have instructed my ministers to take the necessary measures and they will be in charge of communicating them as from tomorrow,” the President announced. He also said his Government's main focus will be on the price of food.

This is “an extraordinary situation that requires extraordinary solutions,” Fernández insisted.

He warned that his government would “not stop controlling and supervising prices, applying the supply law if necessary and using all the instruments available to the state to fulfill the objective of controlling prices.”

Fernández stressed inflation was a serious problem and the Ukraine war made it worse. “Wheat has never cost what it has cost these days, reaching values above 400 dollars per ton,” he said.

“I have decided to set up a stabilization fund in order to avoid the transfer of this international price increase to the price paid by Argentine men and women. I have instructed my ministers to take the necessary measures and they will be in charge of communicating them as from tomorrow”, he announced.

In the same sense, he advanced: “That is why I will summon from this Monday the representatives of the productive sectors, businessmen, formal workers and of the popular economy, representatives of the countryside and commerce, small and medium-sized companies and the civil society to an agreement table that will allow us to design a tomorrow in the fight against inflation.”

“I have decided that the economic cabinet will concentrate from this moment on implementing all the necessary measures to face inflation, particularly the one we see in food. I have given instructions to my ministers to build agreements with the different sectors but not to hesitate to apply all the tools of the state to set and enforce the necessary measures. They will be in charge of keeping you informed on a daily basis about the measures that will be implemented from this very moment,” he said.