The last promise of Alberto Fernández: “The war against inflation in Argentina begins on Friday”

The Argentine President, Alberto Fernandezpromised this Tuesday that next Friday “the war against inflation in Argentina”, in a week in which he hopes that the new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be approved in Congress and in the face of the economic repercussions of the war in Ukraine. However, the president’s words were criticized for the difficult situation in Ukrainian territory.

“On Friday another war is going to start, the war against inflation in the Argentina. We are going to put an end to the speculators and we are going to put things in order,” he promised. Fernandez in an act in which a railway station was inaugurated in the province of Buenos Aires.

Argentina has been suffering from high inflation for decades, which last January registered 50.7% per year and this Tuesday the consumer price index for last February will be released, which is expected to still be at high levels.

Meanwhile, market expectations for the year rise to 55%, above the inflation range between 38% and 48% foreseen in the agreement reached by Argentina with the IMF.

On March 3, the Argentine Government and the IMF staff announced an agreement for a new program of extended facilities that foresees total disbursements of some 45,000 million dollars so that Argentina can face the heavy maturities derived from the “stand by” agreement. ” signed in 2018, during the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

To enter into force, the agreement must first be approved by the two chambers of the Argentine Congress and then by the Fund’s board, and it is expected that this Thursday the Senate will approve the agreement after Deputies approved it last week. .

The Government defends a “multi-causal” diagnosis of inflation in Argentina that is accepted by the IMF, for which the agreement provides for the accumulation of reserves, exchange rate stability, progressive fiscal consolidation and a gradual reduction of monetary financing, positive real interest rates and price and income policies.

Foods

Fernandez He indicated that the war “like the one that has been unleashed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” has repercussions throughout the world and that they arrive in Argentina “in the form of economic complications.”

“The biggest economic complication that the world suffers is that this war has unleashed a tremendous fight in food” and that food prices “fly around the world,” he said. Fernandez.

These statements follow the decision taken by the Government of Fernandez to temporarily close the official registry to carry out new exports of soybean meal and oil, products of which the South American country is the world’s leading exporter.

A measure that the industry understands as a preliminary step to a possible increase in the rate of export duties charged by the State on shipments of soybean meal and oil, which today is 31% and whose extra income, it is speculated, will be will use to subsidize the price of bread.

Meanwhile, the Government has created a trust for wheat exports to stabilize the prices of the package of wheat flour and dry noodles and another for soybean and sunflower oil to maintain an accessible price of packaged oils for final consumers. .