The President of the Republic Luis Lacalle Pou announced this Monday a series of measures and suggestions to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of salaries, retirement and pensions. Among the measures, he announced an additional increase of 3% to the increase already granted at the beginning of the year to pensions and 2% for state officials. These increases will take effect July 1. At a press conference in the Executive Tower, Lacalle Pou insisted that “it is not the price itself” that this government focuses on, but purchasing power. He stated that if “the origin of the rise” in prices is analyzed, it has components that are beyond the control of the national government. “The government’s decision to make it effective goes on the side of salaries and retirements and pensions and the suggestion that is going to be made in the 88 tables to announce the correction of the salary increase.” Among the suggestions, the president mentioned that it was decided to convene the Tripartite Superior Council for this Tuesday so that, in turn, it convenes 88 negotiating tables that involve some 300,000 workers from the private sector for the purpose of evaluating the possibility of advancing for this year the adjustment for inflation planned for 2023. In addition, he announced that the Ministry of Economy is analyzing his suggestion to extend the VAT exemption period for strip roast for the only time. Lacalle Pou estimated that if the increases granted to both retirement and pensions and public salaries are added, it reaches 9%, which, in principle, “would be above the expected annual inflation”, although he asked to handle this data with prudence, given the changing situation worldwide. He added that from the point of view of the government “this tool ensures us to put more money in the pockets of Uruguayans and not lose purchasing power.”
Lacalle Pou recalled that the week before Tourism he held meetings with the different ministries with which he worked on “fundamental and conjunctural” issues. In the previous week, the president met with the heads of Economy, Labor and OPP to “fine tune the measures” that were announced this Monday.
In a brief review of what has happened since the start of the pandemic, he recalled that the Minister of Economy spoke of “keeping the engines of the economy running, and that this was achieved through credit support, exemptions, special unemployment insurance, partial and total ». This made it possible to recover jobs and economic growth “reflected in exports, industrial production, which led to an increase in collection.” However, he said that as a result of the war “inflationary pressure has been suffered throughout the world.” He stated that “this government’s concern is that Uruguayans do not lose purchasing power” and that, at the same time, “the economic policy is sustainable and that it allows us to take these measures in the face of this situation, and suggest other actions.” Before the press conference, Lacalle Pou met with the coalition partners. Asked about the proposals put forward by his members of the coalition, he said that some of them are contemplated in these measures. On the subject of prices, he said that “they do not necessarily have a positive impact, and that, instead, they chose to deliver” more money to alleviate what could be a loss of purchasing power. He added that “we are convinced that the measures adopted are” palliative “but that there are” other components that are price makers on which we are working “.
