Energy Advisor

Macarena Michienzi, specialist in the public policy, risk & strategy practice at Cefeidas Group: “The agreement signed between the Argentine government and main oil companies–including state-owned YPF, which accounts for more than 50 percent of Argentina’s gasoline and diesel market–caps monthly fuel price increases at 4 percent between December and February and at 3.8 percent in March. In return, the government committed to granting oil companies access to the foreign exhange market to import lubricants and to temporarily reducing oil taxes. The agreement represents an expansion in the scope of Precios Justos, the price-control program that the government created last month to rein in mounting inflation by fixing price increases for consumer goods to 4 percent each month. Fuel prices are key in determining the costs faced by both consumers and producers. The agreement with oil companies comes after food producers participating in Precios Justos requested stability in their supply chain costs, which depend largely on…”