US companies in Argentina question price freeze

US capital companies operating in Argentina questioned the recent decision of the Peronist government to Alberto Fernandez to go back to October 1 and freeze the prices of food and other mass consumption products for three months.

The Chamber of Commerce of the USA in Argentina (AmCham) expressed in a statement its “concern about artificial recipes for controlling the inflationary escalation.”

Last Tuesday, the Argentine Ministry of Internal Trade, after achieving a partial consensus with food producers, decided to freeze the prices of 1,500 mass consumption products for three months to put a brake on inflation, one of the main macroeconomic problems of the country. country.

According to the latest official data available, persistent high inflation in Argentina grew 52.5% year-on-year last September and accumulated a 37% rise in the first nine months of the year.

In particular, for the group of food and beverages, an interannual increase of 53.4% ​​was registered in September and an accumulated increase so far this year of 36.6%.

For US-owned companies, the measure adopted last week does not collaborate in the fight against inflation, but, on the contrary, could become a “time bomb” that causes the “future drag to be of a higher level of prices when the measure ends ”.

The companies said that their proposals were not taken into account in the dialogue held last week with the Ministry of Internal Trade and criticized “the lack of will on the part of the authorities to make an equitable agreement appropriate to the reality of the companies.” .

“AmCham has repeatedly pointed out the risks posed by these types of policies: they make it impossible to create new jobs, limit new investments, and create a hostile, restrictive and unpredictable regulatory environment,” the statement said.