When the “war” against inflation begins, there are more doubts than the certainty of the team that will carry it out.

A few hours after the start of the war against inflation, as President Alberto Fernández anticipated, the government has not yet defined what arsenal is needed to cope with the February price increase or how effective it can be in the face of price fluctuations: the private sector and itself.Executive-management. Over the past few hours, cross-contact between the three ministries and the State Secretariat that combines economic policy measures has intensified.

There are a number of factors that must be taken into account when analyzing the strategies that will be implemented by the administration. There are three generals and one lieutenant in charge of the pricing department, with various events and levels of authority.The first group includes three ministers (Martin Guzman of Economics, Matthias Kulpas of Production and Development, and Julian Dominguez of Agriculture), and under the kulpas of the organization chart, Roberto Feletti, the Minister of Internal Trade There is.

The three ministers were most reluctant to put on the table the options they consider to be exceptional due to the adjustment of export tariffs, even in two agricultural products, where the government tried to differentiate itself from primary production without industrial intervention. Based on this logic, soy flour and oil, products derived from soybeans, prefer value-added goods at a lower rate than crops, at least until the increase was formalized.

Without going any further, Minister Domínguez assured that only 13 days ago the war began in Ukraine and that export tariffs would not increase as international prices rose. Other areas of economic equipment also shared a diagnosis with the microphone turned off. The persistence of the global value rise and the government-guaranteed impact were recorded in the local gondola for three weeks, changing the scenario and showing strong withholding options.

Although Feletti is less authoritative than the three ministers, he has publicly lobbied in recent weeks through the political terminal of Vice President Cristina Kirchner with stronger measures to build containment dams at a price. He was also the only official who publicly acknowledged that the government was losing the “battle” that anticipated Alberto Fernández's war metaphor for the increase in some food.

A tug of war between the four economic policy-making terminals that affected prices eventually favored the position of the Minister of Internal Trade. Guzmán said that if the government did not take action in the past few hours, there would be a “profound regressive shock” referring to price increases. Kulfas, who undertakes official duties against Dubai these days, has been silent, and Dominguez has strengthened his stance on meat exporters who threatened to withdraw from the public cut price agreement.

“I just finished a meeting with the ABC consortium. People who do not comply with their commitments to Argentina have informed them that they cannot continueexport of meat. We have made this decision in a situation that aggravates the crisis that livestock is experiencing due to wars that have led to a rise in food prices worldwide, droughts, fires in Corrientes and a shortage of heads of 1.5 million people.” The official said on Twitter.

The measures that governments can take to combat inflation are of course recognized and limited, and they choose not to present them as a “package”, at least for now, but as an emergency measure to avoid large avalanches in the short term. In this sense, on the one hand, there is a possibility of increasing reserves for soy flour and oil. The administration has ruled out an increase in grain such as corn or wheat, or the formation of trusts that have been agreed with exporters and supermarkets to subsidize local prices for certain products.

It is an experiment that the government has already tried with products such as oil, which lasted until January 2023, and recently created a similar plan that Feletti is promoting for wheat products. Although it is a softer mechanism, tensions with the agricultural leadership after the closure of soybean flour and oil exports on Sunday raise questions about whether the administration can take measures that require a settlement.For example, CIARA's sectoral chamber of commerce has already warned that if withholding increases, it will be removed from this type of program.

At the currency level, the central bank can work with the technical team of the Monetary Fund to adjust benchmark interest rate levels to match expected inflation and make local currency returns even more tempting. This kind of decision could be made tomorrow Thursday after the board meeting of the organization chaired by Miguel Pesce.

In the four terminals of economic policy related to prices, they have interfered with strong secrecy over the past few hours. Among the mass consumer entrepreneurs consulted by Infobae and in regular contact with government authorities, they have not yet been notified of stricter price control measures, such as the price freeze established by Internal Trade between October and January.

On Tuesday, Daniel Funes de Rioja, president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) and head of Copal, a business center that gathers food rooms across the country, began talks with internal trade authorities, anticipating that it would reveal an increase of 1,300 products included in the care price.An executive of a large mass consumption company said that if the government thinks about a new freeze, “no one wants to participate in a program that will voluntarily lose money, so it should be eliminated by resolution.”

“The 4.7% inflation rate in February surged in spring due to price freezes between October and January. We have a willingness to keep our products at Care Prices, but we want to be moderately honest about what happens to the costs.” Another businessman claimed.

Entrepreneurs are waiting for an official call to decide if there will be other price control schemes in the coming hours. Moreover, it is not yet clear whether there will be a change in the authorities as part of a new “war” against inflation as expected by Alberto Fernández, or whether all officials in the economic region will remain in their place.

“In internal trade, we are pushing to add more products and more volume to products within the program,” said an executive at another mass consumer company. “I'm worried because everything at Care Price flies out of the gondola, everything is sold and virtually frozen, so no one can send an impression to the supermarket without prior approval.” He cried out.

The first initiative of the “war” on inflation seemed to have been taken by Feletti yesterday afternoon. In the afternoon, a group of officials from all over the country gathered on the 9th floor of the Ministry of Production and Development to celebrate “Consumer Rights Day”. A few minutes later, Indec showed 4.7% inflation in February and the highest food rise in five years.

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