Price control: between fake news and ideological dispute

As part of a sad habit of recent times, we had to see a line of fake news around the control by the citizens of the good functioning of the program Fair prices. Far from reality, from the front pages of the hegemonic media, a scenario was evoked in which the worst of terrors would hit the aisles of every supermarket, when from the outset the proposal was to strengthen the dissemination and training of citizens in order to that they can monitor the price agreement and the availability of the committed products.

During the whole month of November and December, we had already opened information points in the nerve centers of different cities of the country, mainly providing information on the use of the mobile application. It seems that the result of the decline in corporate compliance in early 2023 has been accompanied by a need to protect this shortage by the media, looking elsewhere. And in this scenario, the discrediting of popular participation also plays a role, when in reality it is a key tool for Argentina to reduce the inflation. All sectors of society must be committed to solving this problem.

The truth is that fair prices have so far seen a favorable trend when it comes to containing price increases. It was launched at the beginning of November 2022 and it was this same month that food inflation had its lowest peak of the year. Only 3.5%, when we had just three months above 6 percentage points (August had inflation of 7.1% in this area). Thus, it remains to be thought that the discourse that has emerged from the opposition and the mainstream media seeks not only to attack citizen participation itself, but also the role of state intervention to protect the consumption and table of all Argentinians.

On the other hand, it should be noted that at all times the agreement was voluntary and involved almost a hundred companies that represent 86% of mass consumption in our country, such as Windmills, Coca Cola, Quilmes, Mastellone oh The Marias, among many other companies, and that this agreement guaranteed them the importation of goods and inputs that are part of the value chain of the products offered. It is logical that the rights to what has been agreed also correspond to obligations. For example, Fargo, with around 20 products at fair prices, has only sent 19% of what supermarkets have requested over the past fortnight. It is clear that the state and citizens in general must intervene demanding that they keep their word.

All the battery of lies and exaggerations that the opposition and the media have used to discredit the Precios Justos investigation, works like a mask to hide the debate that they really want to give within society and which bears on the relationship between the state and the market. Faced with this neoliberal history, the answer is given by strengthening popular participation and giving citizens tools to reduce the rise in prices. We have a huge challenge ahead of us to find a path for Argentina to normalize the variables that most strongly impact society as a whole. Building a downward inflation path is a condition sine qua non for the development of our economy in the medium and long term, but for this it is clear that all actors in society must be involved, including the State, private companies and, of course, the public.

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