In the framework of a press conference, President Lacalle Pou said this Wednesday, March 9, that he is working together with the Ministries of Economy and Finance and Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, to achieve a mechanism to contain the increase in prices of products that make up the basic food basket, as a result of the increase in commodities after the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Lacalle said that from the point of view of the final consumer, when some raw materials such as wheat increase in price, there is a whole chain of derived products that also increases. “We are looking for mechanisms, without harming the productive sector, so that the final consumer is not strongly affected by the prices of the basket.”
He stressed that the government seeks to ensure that the final consumer is not harmed and ruled out the mechanism of price fixing.
Difficulties
In recent days, as the United States announced that it would ban imports of oil and gas from Russia, the prices of crude oil and other raw materials have soared globally.
Likewise, wheat increased more than 40%, and on Monday, March 7, it reached its maximum for 14 years, with 12.60 dollars per “bushel”, equivalent to about 27 kilos.
In this framework, on March 4, the data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) referring to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2022 was released, which registered a monthly variation of 1.47%, accumulated in the year of 3.28%, and in the last 12 months of 8.85%. In other words, inflation in Uruguay is outside the target range established by the government. In this sense, one of the highest price variations was recorded in the “food and non-alcoholic beverages” category.
