The Ministry of Internal Trade launched this week a new basket of products for local businesses, and another of fruit and vegetables at reference values in supermarkets, which will be available from this Monday, April 11.
The official agency led by Secretary Roberto Feletti launched last Thursday baskets that include grocery products, meats and vegetables.
In addition, with the aim of guaranteeing access to essential products, the main programs +Prices Care Y Groomed Cuts.
+Prices Care
The new stage of +Care Prices began to govern, the annual agreement with more than 150 companies which includes a basket with 1,763 products representative of average consumption in various items and categories.
To the 1,359 products of +Care Prices, another 404 products were added that are incorporated from the entry into force of the private trust for flour 000 and dry noodles that participate in +Care Prices, which yields a total of 1,763 products for this new phase of the program.
In this period, which runs until July 7, new review guidelines that will be 6.37% average for the entire quarter and that they will be implemented with an average monthly correction of 2.3% until May 7, 2.23% until June 7 and 1.71% in the last month.
? From the National Government we renew existing price agreements and add new initiatives to take care of the income of all Argentines and Argentines.
I’ll tell you what it is and where you can find them ? pic.twitter.com/1mhZwavgek
— Roberto Feletti (@RobertoFeletti) April 7, 2022
The program integrates a wide range of products in the areas of warehousing, cleaning, bookstore, perfumery, personal care and hygiene, items for babies, pets, fresh items, such as dairy products, cold cuts, fresh pasta, empanada and cake tops, frozen foods and beverages. .
They are available every day of the week in large retail and wholesale supermarket chains such as Jumbo, Vea, Disco, Changomas, Coto, Carrefour, Día, Josimar, La Anónima, Libertad, Vital, Cooperativa Obrera, Super Santiago, Himisa Supermarket, Beltrán , Blü, Borbotti, El Solar, El Zorzón, Único, El Abastecedor and Alfa.
Basket of products for local businesses
In addition, it was possible to agree and add a complementary basket of essential products for local businesses to +Precios Cares.
will be 60 mass consumption items that will be marketed in nearby businesses throughout the country starting Monday, April 11.
The program includes personal hygiene items, household cleaning, food and beverages available in self-service stores of Chinese origin, stores, supermarkets and multi-purpose stores throughout the country.
The objective is that this initiative establishes reference prices in local shopswith the purpose of reducing the dispersion of values that exists between these stores and the large supermarket chains.
Fruit and vegetable basket
Likewise, a basket of fresh fruits, vegetables and vegetables was incorporated for sale in large retail and wholesale supermarket chains, available as of Monday, April 11.
This category will monthly renewals with both price and product updates, to respect the seasonality of vegetables and that the offer is always fresh and of nutritional quality.
For April, the selected products and prices (per kilo) are potatoes (black) at $49, onions at $69, tomatoes (round) at $199, lettuce (criolla or nasturtium) at $160 and apples (royal gala) at $180.
They will be available, initially in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), every day at Día, Walmart, Changomas, Jumbo, Vea, Disco, Coto, Carrefour and Makro supermarkets.
Going forward, the purpose is to extend this measure both to the rest of the country and to nearby businesses.
Cuts Care
On the other hand, the Care Cuts program was extended, which includes seven popular cuts of beef at reference prices well below those found in the market, which are sold from Monday to Friday in more than a thousand outlets in the whole country.
In this new stage, which will also last until July 7, the values of the cuts will be (per kilo): roast $679, empty $815, steak $810, skirt $449, roast lid $679, buttock $859 and shoulder $699.
In this case, the cuts have a average guideline increase of 2.8% for the first month, but the roast and the brisket maintain the same price as in the previous phase.
Consumers will be able to find these cuts in large retail and wholesale supermarket chains such as Jumbo, Coto, Vea, Disco, Carrefour, Walmart, La Anónima, Día, Changomas, Vital, Makro and butcher shops attached to the Unica and ABC cold storage chambers. .
IMF: “The recipe of raising rates to lower inflation may be rudimentary”
A recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that the world’s central banks should get used to living with inflation for a while, due to the uncertainty of the recovery, the duration of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, while arguing that the unique recipe of raising interest rates to combat inflation, as established by traditional monetary theory, “can be a rudimentary tool.”
The report, signed by economists Ruchir Agarwall and Miles Kimballstates that despite the fact that “standard economic theory establishes that inflation will get out of control under a prolonged combination of certain monetary and fiscal policies, if inflation persists, it deserves closer scrutiny“, they considered in relation to the rise in prices that gained momentum in 2022 in the world.
The authors suggested that there is no single recipe for fighting inflation, since “the answer depends both on the distribution of shocks in the economy and on how central banks (and finance ministries) react.”
They also stated that these price increases would not be detrimental in the long term.
In this sense, the IMF text explains that “the duration of the current episode of inflation -(which affects the world in general)- will depend on (the interaction between the persistence of the tightness of the labor market and the bottlenecks of the chain supply and the response of the central bank and the duration of the war in Ukraine and its impact on energy prices, food prices and global growth, among the main causes.
They venture that these price increases would not be detrimental in the long term. “If history is any guide, we won’t see inflation runaway more than a couple of years into the future,” although some countries may lose their blue chip status (inflation of up to 4% a year for three consecutive years), largely due to inflation that has already taken place during the pandemic, they warned.
“Central banks’ aversion to inflation may be suppressed given the long-term lasting impact of the pandemic, uncertainty about the recovery and the temptation to inflate higher debt loads globally”explain the economists about the usual policies of central banks to combat inflation, which include, for example, withdrawing money held by consumers.
Those resisting lowering inflation, and thus “ending the recovery prematurely, cite lower labor force participation compared to pre-pandemic levels,” they noted.
Consequently, they explain that many banks today have much lower reference rates than they should have to fight inflation, because they continue to prioritize recovery.
