YPF will NOT increase fuels!
29/12/2019
The new increase was going to be the tenth of 2019. Finally, by decision of the national government, for the moment the upload will not take place.
YPF planned to increase the price of fuels by 5% as of today. The adjustment was part of a recomposition path initiated after the October elections, destined to close the year with values as close as possible to export parity.
The president of the company, Guillermo Nielsen, gave approval to the adjustment and the novelty transcended the media this Sunday early. However, about 18 o'clock from the government it was allowed to transcend that President Alberto Fernández himself gave Nielsen the order not to advance with the rise.
YPF concentrates more than 55% of the market. Therefore, the rest of the companies usually follow in their footsteps even if the market is formally deregulated. The problem is that if they decide to increase and distance themselves too much from the values of the oil company controlled by the National State, they run the risk of continuing to lose market. As a result, what YPF decides impacts the market as a whole.
After the defeat in the primary elections, the Macri government announced a freeze on the price of crude oil and fuels to try to reverse the result, despite the fact that the dollar had risen 25% the day after PASO. Once consummated the victory of Alberto Fernández in the first round, the reaction was exactly the opposite. At the beginning of November an increase of 5% was authorized even though the freezing was not over yet. In mid-November, when the control was terminated, another 5% increase came and on December 1 a new touch up of 6.3% was applied. Thus, in just one month the rise reaches almost 18% accumulating up to 44.5% in the year in the case of diesel, below inflation.
Companies were pressing to apply a final adjustment, especially since the rise in retentions further removed them from export parity. However, the decision not to authorize increases in these first six months of government ended in priority, in line with what happened with the transport of passengers and public services such as electricity and gas.
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