:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/C6UNN46G4FEHTI56TFDZP4YDNM.jpg "How pricing deals and corporate negotiations will continue after January inflation data 1")
A few hours after the knowledge of inflation data for January – which according to consultants and private sources could be between 5.8% and 6.1% – the Government continues to strengthen the monitoring and controls of price agreements in force, which in addition to the basket of approximately 2,000 products at fixed prices maintain a pattern of increases of 3.2% per month from February to June 2023 for approximately 50,000 products of various items.
School basket: one by one, the 316 products included in the new Fair Price agreement
It will be available in supermarkets and affiliated bookstores until March 31. The deal is part of the fair price program
When the fair price program was launched, inflation in November 2022 was accompanied by a decline of 6.3% per month to 4.9%, but since then it has followed an upward trajectory: 5.1 % in December and the negative data also for January, where the forecast puts it closer to 6 percent.
Data circulating in the offices of the Secretary of Commerce shows that so far the agreement with businesses and supermarkets is being respected, but the explanation is that inflation is an average where services and fresh products have also an impact – apart from agreements – and all items that are marketed beyond the major chains. Although there have been unsuccessful attempts with fruit and vegetable baskets, official sources acknowledge that due to the way they are sold, they do not allow negotiations and checks as in the case of the companies of Big consumption.
The pattern of increases in the price agreement was 4% monthly increases from November to the end of January. According to this guideline, the figures treated by the Secretariat are that the increase in consumer products under the agreement was 12.7% for a basket of 2,000 products sold in mass distribution – the most representative – and 13.4% for food and non-alcoholic beverages. The figures were very close to 12.6%, which should have increased in the same period with full compliance with the agreement.
Which 540 products this month will increase by up to 9%, above the fair price guideline?
Although the economics team ordered out-of-basket increases to be 3.2% per month, FMCG companies negotiated ‘exceptions’
The projection is that for February, the monthly inflation for the supermarket basket will be 3.8% and for food and non-alcoholic beverages 3.9% (taking as a guideline 3.2% compared to prices means of January). Some products had a higher upward trend (up to 9% because they arrived frozen from November). But if we take the cumulative variation to February, it is increases of 4.5% for the supermarket basket and 4.7% for food and beverages.
The weak point of the price agreements remains that they are not extended to small businesses, which obtain their supplies from wholesalers, nor to fresh products, such as fruit and vegetables. Today, with the new agreement on the price of meat, the authorities expect a significant drop in prices if it is respected. They argue that it covers many more companies, that more refrigerators participate (about 70) and that the number of tons available in the cuts included in the agreement have a greater weight in the total consumed. Today it stands at 182,000 tonnes per month and the seven cuts included total 60,000 tonnes.
There’s also more emphasis on controls. In a meeting they held this week with companies and large supermarket chains, the Ministry of Commerce asked to increase the number of products that each company reports daily to the price monitoring system, especially in the case of wholesale supermarkets, where the complaints of small businesses are concentrated, which do not accept the agreed prices.
Fair prices: the list of products that will be frozen until June and the increases that will apply from tomorrow
GlobeLiveMedia accessed the lists consolidated by the Secretary of Commerce. The products in the basket, those that have left the program and the exceptional increases that will take place this month
On the control side, an AFIP resolution published this week in the Official Journal -Resolution 5329/2023- aims to favor distributors who sell to the smallest companies, but in black, and who have prices above the market.
After the announcement of the renewal of the price program, the Ministry of Commerce continued negotiations with the companies and even signed amendments to the agreements already signed. The fixed price list was published a week later and now they assure that all companies have already signed the agreement with a guideline of monthly increases until June 30.
In a context of high inflation and rising costs, many companies are wondering about the real possibilities of complying with the directive within a period that they consider too long. Secretariat officials have a file of each company they have negotiated with where they have information on their compliance with the agreement, their cost structure, the degree of market concentration and also the amounts approved for the import of inputs. With this data, they explain, the negotiations are transparent and no one can say that it is “untenable”.
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