At noon and on La Rambla in Mar del Plata.
Those are the
coordinates where the price control "operatives" of the pro-government piqueteros will begin
, as announced by the head of one of those groups this Friday in the same coastal city.
This is
Daniel Menéndez
, head of Somos Barrios de Pie, who is also an official of the Ministry of Social Development of the Nation.
As this newspaper has already announced, the move is part of an
agreement with the Minister of Economy Sergio Massa and his Secretary of Commerce Matías Tombolini
.
The piqueteros thus join the
first and most controversial pressure endorsed by the Government
: it was when trade unionists from the powerful Truckers union broke into large businesses to verify if they were complying with the supply of the items included in the Fair Prices.
The intervention of the piqueteros is different
.
At least according to what was announced this Friday: they will be in points of high tourist circulation in Mar del Plata such as the aforementioned Rambla, plus Plaza Miter, Plaza España, and the corners of Independencia and Colón, Independencia and Luro, and Miter and pedestrian San Martín, to teach how to use the application that allows you to control Fair Prices in stores.
This is one of Massa's bets to lower inflation that does not subside and complicates his political/electoral plans.
The last index in December gave 5.1% and triggered the annual price rise to a record of almost 95 points in 2022. Record since 1991.
Fair Prices promised a number of products with monthly increases of a maximum of 4%.
But one of the main criticisms from consumers was that those items were not on the shelves.
And
from the Economy they decided to reactivate a methodology that had already failed in the past
: control through union organizations and piqueteros.
At the beginning of 2021,
with Martín Guzmán in office
, there were also similar operations within businesses (basically supermarkets).
In that case, to verify the "Care Prices".
Menendez's announcement
Menendez gave a press conference this Friday in Mar del Plata to make the announcement.
He announced that "it will
start working at 12 on La Rambla and at five other points of reference in the city
."
And he added: "We believe that the initiative is working, that's why we brought it to the Atlantic Coast, where there are many people on vacation.
Since control began at the national level
, we see a significant drop in food, if we compare the third quarter with the fourth of 2022, where prices were lowered from 10 to almost 5 points per month".
Massa and Tombolini had meetings with the referents of Somos Barrios de Pie starting in November of last year,
when it was already seen that the objective of lowering inflation
to 3% in April (or at least starting with 3 in that month) was
in
danger
And now the doubts follow.
After 5.1% in December,
economists predict a rise of around 6% for the first month of the year
.
They see a sudden slowdown as complicated, especially if the plan is based on these parallel and questionable controls by truckers and picketers.
The decision even generated a criminal complaint by Elisa Carrió, not only against Massa and Tombolini, but also against President Alberto Fernández himself.
"We believe that this initiative started with some confusion due to the image that the truckers circulated.
I don't know what the truckers agreed to, I don't have the details, but I see a very large stigmatization process
. Today there is full responsibility of the Government in the control and in the fine for non-compliance, as happened with an important supermarket chain", Menéndez defended the initiative before the
Clarín
consultation .
"There is talk of the intervention of Truckers and the information is misrepresented. What was intended to be imposed was not seen, such as squeeze or extortion. Clearly it seeks to ridicule an intervention action by the State. The ideological intersection creates tension and does not lead to a good port when they want to confuse what is being done," he added.
The main contribution of these piqueteros, as announced, will be to teach how to use the application that helps to verify if the businesses are complying with the prices agreed with the Government. The APP allows you to scan the products and check the values.
" There
are 51 shops in Mar del Plata at Fair Prices, where 120 products are registered
. For now it is difficult to see the impact it will have here, but it is one more help to stop an upward trend and stabilize food prices at levels It depends on other factors such as the accumulation of reserves, that the exchange rate does not skyrocket, and other macroeconomic variables to lower inflation," the piquetero and official reference completed.
look also
The opposition points to the suspicious purchase of bonds before Massa's announcement: "It seems diagrammed and some could have benefited"
Surprise: a minister of Alberto Fernández returns, but as a candidate
