Faced with the fuel shortage in Argentina, which generated queues at gas stations in the capital Buenos Aires and other cities in the week following the first round of the presidential elections, Alberto Fernández’s government held this Friday (27) a meeting with representatives of the main companies in the sector to try to increase the supply of gasoline and diesel.
According to the newspaper Clarín, in the meeting with the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, two main points were agreed: the companies agreed to import ten ships of fuel and that the technical shutdowns at the refineries, which reduced supply, will be ended.
The Argentine government will provide US$400 million from the Central Bank’s scarce liquid reserves for these actions to take place, Clarín added.
The Argentine Energy Secretariat reported that there were increases of up to 15% in demand this month compared to last year, due to factors such as the long weekend between the 13th and 16th (due to holidays on those dates), recovery of agricultural production and the race ahead of the first round, last Sunday (22), in which the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, received the most votes and qualified to contest the second round in November with the libertarian Javier Milei.
The strong demand for supplies before the elections occurred due to concern about a possible increase in prices (which actually ended up happening) or a new devaluation of the Argentine peso.
In August, after Milei received the most votes in the primaries, the Peronist government devalued the Argentine currency against the dollar by 22%.
Also in August, Massa announced a freeze on fuel prices until October 31st. However, before this deadline, on Monday (23), the state-owned YPF increased prices by 3% and its private competitors also promoted adjustments.
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