The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced on Monday the implementation of the Now 10 Plan for the acquisition of cell phones in ten fixed installments at a subsidized rate of 48%within the framework of an agreement with the sector that establishes maximum prices for 90 days.
“It is very important to reach the goal of selling one million cell phones per month”Massa said at a meeting in the Economy portfolio, in which he signed the Now 10 agreement with the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini.
The minister maintained that “it is very important to establish a maximum price criterion until March 15” in order to “give people certainty when they are going to make a purchase” and remarked that “achieve fiscal order, a surplus in the trade balance and accumulation of reserves must be accompanied by an economy that does not curb consumption”.
The head of the Palacio de Hacienda explained that the program includes “70 different types of phone models and of almost all brands, which give the possibility of choosing products ranging from 40 to 200 thousand pesos and paying for them in a more comfortable way.”
On the other hand, he considered that setting prices until March 15 “helps to continue building a path to reduce inflation.”
“The decrease in inflationary expectations is built on the basis of being able to give measures not only from the macroeconomic point of view that add to that objective, but also from the point of view of generating expectations, decisions of all the actors that help us carry out this goal,” he said.
The voluntary agreement that was reached with the main cell phone manufacturing companies, public and private banks and household appliance chains, includes 72 models and formats of equipment that can be purchased in 10 fixed installments with a nominal annual rate of 48% in more than 2 thousand marketing outlets in the country.
LIVE | the minister @SergioMassa and the Secretary of Commerce @matiastombolini announce a maximum price agreement for cell phones for 90 days with financing in fixed installments.https://t.co/HNQ8bQoA7h
– Secretary of Commerce (@ComercioArg) December 12, 2022
Likewise, With the Ahora 12 plan, the equipment can be purchased in 3, 6 or 12 fixed monthly installments both in physical stores and on online sites.
Tombolini stressed that it is “an important agreement that has an objective that remains in line with the road map proposed by the minister to consolidate fiscal order and the accumulation of reserves” while remarking that “with these two elements we can move forward in lowering inflation.
“The price agreement is fundamental. We cannot stop attending to what is consumption and we are committed to returning to the levels of sale and production of cell phones that Argentina used to have,” he considered.
Meanwhile, the executive director of Afarte, Ana Vainman, assured: “We celebrate this initiative that encourages the consumption of nationally manufactured products. The return of cell phones to Now 12 in all its versions and this new Now 10 program with a differential rate will undoubtedly boost demand.”
The maintenance of prices “will allow consumers to access the latest technology in a good as essential as the cell phone,” he added.
In this way, the Secretary of Commerce stressed that work will continue on “measures and programs that aim to order prices to bring predictability and relief to Argentines and recover the purchasing power of wages based on voluntary agreements of paths of prices with the different actors of the value chain”.
According to data from Afarte, the monthly average of cell phone consumption from January to October 2022 was 710 thousand units, while the projected production for this year is 10 million units.
Participating in the meeting at the Ministry of Economy were the Undersecretary for Business Policy and Management, Germán Cervantes; the Undersecretary of Policies for the Internal Market, Anastasia Daicich; the president of the Chamber of Credit Cards, César Bastién; the vice president of the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME); the Executive Director of the Association of Public and Private Banks of the Argentine Republic (ABAPPRA); the president of the Association of Banks of Argentina (ABA), Claudio Cesario; and the representative of the Association of Argentine Banks (Adeba), Soledad Barrera.
Also present, representing the companies, were Fernando Maquieira (Mirgor), Luis Galli (Newsan), Manuel Sánchez Gómez and Alejandro Tazman (Frávega), Bruno Drobeta and Santiago Pezzatti (Samsgung), Martín Valle (Musimundo), Claudio Malaver (Rodó), Pierino Mastronardi (Cetrogar), Santiago Ambrosio (Megatone) and Gustavo Palma (Naldo Lombardi).
