Government accord ‘only price deal’

Supermarkets to lift ads from media

Consumer Protection Deputy Secretary María Lucila Colombo yesterday supported the measure by supermarkets and household appliances’ companies to remove their ads from newspapers and TV channels, because the “main price deal” is the national government’s prize freeze agreement, valid until April 1.

Colombo said she has “no information” regarding alleged pressure from Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno, to supermarkets and appliances stores to remove their ads from media in Buenos Aires City and surroundings.

“I can’t picture supermarkets basing their deals’ policies based on a decision from the Domestic Trade Department. Not at all. They don’t know what to come up with,” said Colombo regarding articles from local dailies reporting that Moreno “ordered” supermarkets not to “publish ads,” warning them with “sanctions.”

Ratazzi: ‘no aspirin’ for inflation

Fiat Argentina CEO and Car Manufacturers Association (ADEFA) head Cristiano Ratazzi said yesterday that he is “concerned about Argentina’s competitivity in the medium term” due to “the dollar price and inflation,” which he described as a “problem that cannot be solved with an aspirin.”

Ratazzi said that the wage negotiations in the sector contemplate a “25 percent increase,” a floor he considered “impossible to reach,” adding that “this means we have a serious problem.”

“The inflation problems cannot be resolved with an aspirin. Inflation is a serious problem. With Sudan we have the highest inflation in the world, no one is close to ten percent per year, we have a serious inflation problem and nobody seems to be doing much about it,” said Ratazzi during a radio interview.

Lavagna: gov’t generates ‘stability feeling’

Former economy minister Roberto Lavagna said yesterday that the national government wants to “generate a feeling of stability” over the next two months so that the union’s collective bargaining negotiations “are closer to 20 percent,” and criticized the national government’s price agreement with supermarkets.

“This already happened in Argentina’s history, it happened with (former economy minister Celestino) Rodrigo and Isabel (former president María Estela Martínez de Perón), when they allowed all the unions to sign agreements and then major austerity policies were implemented, surely different to today’s ones, but the mechanism is the same one,” said Lavagna.

Herald with DyN,Telam