The increases coming in March: transportation, gas, water, prepaid, metro, VTV Buenos Aires, metered parking, etc.

While the inflation rate tends to settle at a level of 6% per month during the first quarter of the year, the increases in services and tariffs have an increasingly accelerated indexation. The month of March will mark the start of new increases in various items, including tuition fees, transport costs, prepaid or even fuel, which have already started to have a monthly adjustment rate.

From Tuesday, March 7, the metro ticket will cost 58 dollars while the Premetro will be worth 20 dollars, as confirmed by a resolution published this Monday by the company Subterráneos de Buenos Aires (Sbase). The update will be applied in four sections and the ticket will cost $67 in May, $74 in June and $80 in September.

The government has defined a program of increases for schools receiving a state subsidy to which 18 provinces have joined, including Buenos Aires and CABA. According to the agreement, the quotas will increase to 16.38% in March and in the following months they will undergo adjustments of 3.35% until June.

Since the beginning of 2023, a new scheme for increasing prepaid drug prices with monthly increases has come into effect. In March, the increase will be 7.66% for all users depending on the variation in the health cost index (which includes the evolution of drugs, inputs and salaries in the sector), while affiliates with a net income of less than $392,562 (six minimum salaries) will be able to fill out a form and access a lower raise of 5.04%.

March will be the last month of the price agreement signed by the Ministry of Energy and the companies in the sector, which already provided for increases of 4% in December, January and February. In the third month of the year, the adjustment will be 3.8% and, as expected by the oil companies, it will be applied in the middle of the month.

Since 2022, a gradual reduction in subsidies is applied to the service charge by AySA. The last move was in January. In March, users in medium areas – according to the zonal coefficient – will start paying full tariffs (there are approximately 984,000 residential users). Meanwhile, customers in lower middle areas will maintain a 15% subsidy on the final invoice price since March. (There are approximately 1.1 million users).

There is a register – on the ERAS page – where those who lose their grants can apply to keep them as long as their household income is below two basic baskets ($327,078 in February). Users with an area coefficient between 1.10 and 1.45 will automatically benefit.

From March 1, the new public transport fare grid in the AMBA begins to apply, which will be updated monthly according to the INDEC CPI index. From the update, the month of March will start with a value of $37.10 for the ticket if the route is up to 3 kilometers; $41.34 for a distance between 3 and 6 kilometers; $44.52 between 6 and 12 kilometers; $47.70 between 12 and 27 kilometers; and $50.88 if the route exceeds 27 kilometres.

In the case of trains, the minimum fare will be $18.02 for the Roca, Belgrano Sur, Belgrano Norte and Urquiza lines; and $23.32 for the Sarmiento, Miter and San Martín lines.

Users – according to the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royon– will have a single update in 2023 at a price of 28.3%. While low income customers (level 2 of the segmentation) will not have an increase in the cost per cubic meter.

However, the increases corresponding to transmission and distribution services will then be added to this percentage, which will also impact the final price of the invoice. According to industry estimates, and based on the increases already defined, the sum of all the components – transmission, distribution, gas prices and taxes – would represent an increase of 50% for a user with average income (level 3 of the segmentation). .

The government of the city of Buenos Aires has confirmed new rates for vehicle technical verification (VTV), metered parking, transport and Ecobici services.

The increase for the Technical Verification of Vehicles (VTV) will be implemented in two tranches: 80% from this Tuesday, February 28 and 51% from May. Mandatory service for cars will increase from $4,024 to $7,242 and will reach $9,296 in May. For motorcycles, it will rise from $1,513 to $2,723 and reach $3,495 in May.

For metered parking, the value will increase from $45 to $81 per hour, an increase of 45%. In case of transportation, the service will also increase by 45% from $6,525 to $9,462. Finally, the rental of the Ecobici will continue to be free to make four trips a day of a maximum duration of 30 minutes, Monday to Friday, for residents of the city. While the pass that allowed six rides a day for up to 60 minutes will drop from $1,275 per month to $1,785.

Consultants and economic analysts do not expect a significant decline in inflation for the coming months as they consider that several factors place a high floor on the increase in the index, such as the increase in the rate of devaluation of the peso during the first half of February, the impact of the rise in the price of meat, the nature of the strong seasonal inflation in March -due to clothing and back to school- and the continuity of the adjustments rising regulated prices.

“There are fundamental elements that do not allow us to be very optimistic about the possibility of observing a downward trend in inflation. The Argentine economy has never forgotten the price adjustment gymnastics of the 1980s, but has recently regained some temporary dynamics of that decade: adjustments have ceased to be long spaced and in stipulated months, salary adjustments are no longer semi-annual. The increases are permanent and continuous,” he said. GlobeLiveMedia Pablo Besmedrisnikpartner of VDC Consulting.

“We are in an inflationary process based on notable macroeconomic fragility, with restrictions on the supply side of goods, due to import limitations or climate issues, but which has acquired an inertial and persistent character. The inertial and persistent character contributes to generating confusion among the various economic agents, who do not find a reference price and whose only logic is to escape the peso which will certainly be worth less tomorrow and spend where they can,” added the Economist.

Economists agree that March is generally, for seasonal reasons, a month with higher inflation on average. Added to this are other factors that make it difficult to deactivate the bullish inertia: the drought will continue to impact food prices, beef will probably continue to be traded to the end consumer, wage adjustments will continue their course . And with a government that will try to make creeping ankle (devaluations) continue to be more aligned with inflation and import restrictions,” he said. santiago manoukianby Ecolatina.

On the whole, specialists agree that the new price control system – with the items that have been added to the fair price program – is having relative success and with forceps. “It is a broad agreement, with several sectors, different from other times and accompanied by a contractual budgetary and monetary policy but at the same time it ends up with a panorama that the greater access of companies to dollars can be broken and that agreements,” warned Manoukian.

“The effectiveness of price control decreases sharply from the third month of its implementation. From March, the economic authority will be faced with the challenge of sustaining growing inflationary pressures in food with eroded control mechanisms in the midst of an election campaign,” concluded Pablo Besmedrisnik.

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