[ad_1]
BRASÍLIA AND SÃO PAULO – Fearful of inflation risk, the president Jair bolsonaro He said on Friday the 4th that he has sought associations of supermarkets to try to lower the prices of the products that make up the basic basket. He reasoned that he does not intend to “hit anywhere”, or interfere in the economic area. The comment was made during a trip to the Registry (SP).
“Are rice and beans coming out? Just so you know: I have already spoken with intermediaries, I will speak with the supermarket association soon,” said the president. “I am talking to see if the products of the basic basket there are … I am asking for a sacrifice, patriotism so that the large supermarket owners stay in the lowest profit margin.”
In the same conversation, Bolsonaro indicated that he is afraid of the risk of inflation. “It is not shouting, nobody is going to shoot anywhere … because emergency help arrived, people began to spend a little more, a lot of paper in the square, inflation is coming,” he declared. “The best way to control the economy is not to interfere. Because if it interferes, it doesn’t work.”
Supermarkets complain about industry readjustments
On Thursday 3, the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras) said that the supermarket sector has been under strong pressure to raise prices. “As we learned, this is due to the increase in exports of these products and their raw materials and the decrease in imports of these items,” the association said in a statement. “Added to this is the fiscal policy of encouraging exports and the growth of domestic demand driven by emergency aid from the federal government.”
Abras communicated to the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon), of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, about price adjustments for items such as rice, beans, milk, meat and soybean oil. The association stated that the motivation was to seek solutions from all participants in the supply chain.
According to Abras, the price increase has been generalized and has been transmitted to industries and suppliers. “Abras, which represents the 27 affiliated state associations, sees this situation with great concern, since they are products of the basic basket of the Brazilian population.”
High retail prices reach 23.8%
The economist of the Brazilian Institute of Economics (Ibre) and coordinator of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, André Braz, selected seven basic products and found that, in 12 months until August, these products rose, on average , 28.9% wholesale and 23.8% retail.
The basket selected for the analysis consisted of rice, wheat flour, sugar, chicken, beef, pork and soybean oil. For these basic items, the transfer to the consumer was practically comprehensive ”, says the economist. Braz explains that the difference of five percentage points that has not yet reached the supermarket shelves may be a delay due to stocks, but will inevitably be passed on to the consumer.
The analyst of the Necton brokerage, Marcel Zambelo, says that the transfer of prices in the food and supermarket sector is usually more complex, but that, at this time, both supermarkets and suppliers have managed to transfer the increase due to increased demand . “This is a sector with historically low margins. Both from the point of view of the suppliers and the supermarkets. It is very competitive. Now, however, both have been able to pass on prices due to the increase in demand caused, in part, for emergency aid, “he says. He comments that in the second quarter, companies in the sector managed to make the sales operation more efficient and improve results.
“I think these prices will continue to be passed on and what can happen is a substitution by the lower-income consumer, who ends up looking for cheaper brands,” says Zambelo.
The increases in food prices at this time are mainly produced by the devaluation of the real against the dollar, which marks the prices of these products in the international market. This movement is also driven by strong external demand for food, especially from China. For the president of the Brazilian Institute of Retail Executives (Ibevar), Claudio Felisoni, the arguments presented by Abras make sense.
In addition to the high dollar, the association mentioned tax incentives for exports and the growth in domestic demand driven by Emergency Aid. “It is a fact, but we live in a free market economy, there is no way to control prices,” says Felisoni.
Behind the scenes, the fight would be around the loss of margins and who would pass the highs less. “The supermarket sector has strived to maintain normalized prices and has been guaranteeing a regular supply since the start of the pandemic in 90,000 stores throughout the country,” Abras said in the statement.
In the opinion of FGV’s Braz, supermarkets are right to complain about price rises and this pressure is not current. “The point is that, gradually, retailers have been reducing margins to the point that they can no longer absorb the readjustments. Therefore, they have to increase consumer prices.”
[ad_2]
