The Minister for Economic Policy, Gabriel Rubinsteindefended this Saturday the decision of the Ministry of Economy, led by presidential candidate Sergio Massa, to transmit the data on price increases weekly, instead of once a month as INDEC did in the past, saying that the blue dollar rose after the PASO because the libertarian Javier Milei won.
“It is not a dream to have your own index because sometimes it is very bad. It just is.” This is a way to track price developments more closely. the economy. “INDEC is not participating at all,” emphasized Rubinstein.
After learning the dramatic double-digit inflation data for August and in the middle of the campaign, the economic portfolio official announced that it was decided to publish the index weekly because “some are talking about hyperinflation or that inflation will be 10.” “By “From now on the amount will be reduced by % per month,” but the ministry has “evidence that this is not the case.”
“Do you agree that there are elections? Yes, but we can neither publish nor not publish if this point seems important to us. There was a change in natural dynamics. The forecasts were for internal discussion, but we saw no need for it. “I will spread it until now,” he added.
Asked what figure he would like to release before the general election, he replied: “I I would be happy if inflation was 5% per year., none of the numbers we see make me happy. Then the relative thing begins: If people expect inflation to be 15% and suddenly it’s 10%, then that’s an improvement. I won’t tell you what makes me happy.
“It is an estimate completely independent of Indec, which any consulting firm could have carried out. We wanted to have our own monitoring and in this case, after a week with a lot of increases, it seems to me to be good to be able to do that.” show that the indices are falling“, he emphasized.
When detailing the mechanisms by which they will produce the Commerce Department’s weekly forecast, he explained: “The estimates.” They do not have the Indec methodology. We do not conduct surveys at sales locations. It’s different, they are estimates that try to project the inflation of the index basket. absolutely separate and complementary.”
In dialogue with the radio miterThe national official asserted that “Milei’s triumph has raised fears about what would happen if he were a government” and that there has been “some movement in marginal dollars.”
“He The outcome of PASO was a shock for the market due to Milei’s triumph and fears about what he would do if he were a government, how he would turn it into dollars. On October 23rd we will see whether the results of the elections have an impact or not the political situation, then there There may be slight fluctuations in marginal dollars“, prediction.
As for them official dollarthe Minister for Economic Policy specified: “The decision is Got it fixed by November 15th and then begin a moderate crawl peg while we wait to see what the new administration does.”
Regarding the forecasts for the index of Inflation in SeptemberRubinstein was candid: “It will be high. We cannot rule out the possibility that it is in double digits. It could be nine or so, ten, eleven, but we think it will be very high, because especially the very high inflations of the last weeks of August will imply a high inflation floor for September, which would no longer exist after that. ”
Gabriel Rubinstein expected inflation to be “high” in September. Photo: Luciano Thieberger
“One would expect that the sharp rise in inflation would take place between October and September, ie Inflation in October is significantly lower than in September“, he emphasized.
For Rubinstein, “the only thing that matters is that inflation can be reduced” and he said that if Sergio Massa is elected head of state, “he will bring inflation under control in a shorter period of time” than the two years Milei promised had.
In this framework, he considered it essential that the country moves towards a “fiscal surplus” and “no budget deficit”, because if we do not have access to credit and have no reserves, we are left with “the only option we have.” to have”. a deficit.”
“The Exchange rate gap is very harmful and affects inflation. We have to solve it, but for it to go down by 30% we need a lot of dollars,” he concluded.
