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Panama’s Price Controls Near Final Phase, With Only Four Products Still Regulated
🇵🇦 Panama /Economy & Trade

Panama’s Price Controls Near Final Phase, With Only Four Products Still Regulated

From TVN Panamá · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Panama’s price-control system has been reduced to four products and could end entirely before the close of the year, Acodeco director Ramón Abadi said.
  • The remaining regulated items are ground beef, palm or soybean oil, powdered milk and sliced white bread, each with a set maximum price.
  • The Ministry of Commerce and Industries will decide whether to retain the controls, which consumer advocates say mainly benefited people living in poverty or extreme poverty.

Panama’s price-control system is close to disappearing. Ramón Abadi, director of the Consumer Protection and Competition Authority, said only four products remain regulated and that they may no longer be covered by the scheme before the end of the year.

The products are first-quality ground beef, capped at $2.15 per pound; palm or soybean oil in 1.42- to 1.5-liter containers, capped at $3.74; powdered whole or instant milk in 345- to 400-gram packages, capped at $3.76; and sliced white bread in 14- to 18-ounce packages, capped at 92 cents. Infant formula, whole-grain bread and specialty bread do not qualify under the listed categories.

Abadi made the comments while appearing before the National Assembly’s Budget Committee. He said, “Price controls are practically extinct; we have four price-controlled products left, and very possibly there will be none by the end of the year.”

Price controls are practically extinct; we have four price-controlled products left, and very possibly there will be none by the end of the year.

— Ramón AbadiThe Acodeco director described the declining scope of Panama’s price-control system during testimony before the National Assembly Budget Committee.

The remaining controls have also become harder to see in supermarkets and other stores. Giovanni Fletcher of the Panamanian Institute for the Defense of Consumer Rights said the measure had a relatively strong effect on people below the poverty or extreme-poverty line, but offered less to other groups when the regulated products were unavailable on store shelves.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industries will decide whether to remove the controls or keep them. It coordinates and proposes executive decrees on prices and commercial margins, drawing on recommendations from the Price Adjustment Commission. The future of the four products is still being evaluated.

The measure did have a relative impact on people below the poverty or extreme-poverty line; the rest of the population, above those levels or within the nearly extinct middle class, did not benefit because they could not find the products on supermarket shelves.

— Giovanni FletcherThe consumer-rights advocate assessed who benefited from the regulated prices and criticized the products’ limited availability.
About this summary

Originally published by TVN Panamá in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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