RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina is experiencing a strong acceleration of the inflationary rhythm: prices experienced an interannual advance of 55.1% in March.
The oil company YPF, controlled by the Argentine State, announced on Monday that it will increase the sale price of its basic fuels by an average of 9%, the second rise in less than two months, company sources reported.
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YPF, the largest producer and marketer of hydrocarbons in Argentina, explained in a statement that this increase is intended to “prevent the existing price gap with the competition from continuing to widen.”
“Prior to this increase, it was between 7% and 12% and caused an increase in demand for the YPF network, generating significant product outages throughout its system and impacting the level of service to all its customers.” said the company, whose prices serve as a reference for other private companies that operate in the domestic fuel marketing market.
In the middle of last March, fuels had already increased by 9.5% in the South American country, while in February another rise of 9% was established.
According to YPF, during April the demand for fuels in the domestic market “was very high”, especially in diesel, which registered the “greatest demand in history”, which caused the company to incorporate an additional 75% of volume compared to the month of March.
The rise is also associated with the “evolution of the variables that make up the retail price”, such as the increase in costs associated with refinancing and marketing, the increase in local prices of biofuels produced by third parties and the “sustained increase” in the international prices of those fuels “that it is necessary to import to complement local refining”.
In that sense, the oil company recalled that international prices “have continued to increase” in recent weeks, with gas oil values 30% higher than those registered in March, while local biofuel prices have increased in the order of 30% in the same period.
“After this adjustment, we will continue to monitor the evolution of the variables that affect price formation, the behavior of the competition, always taking into account the particularities of the country’s macroeconomic context and the international reality,” YPF said.
This increase occurs in a context of strong acceleration of the inflationary rhythm in the South American country: prices in Argentina experienced in March this year a year-on-year advance of 55.1% and a monthly increase of 6.7%.