Gasolinazo: Argentines Brace for a 30-40% Gas Price Hike

As unions prepare a general strike against his government's policies, Argentine President Mauricio Macri plans to increase gas prices by between 30 or 40 percent, the country's energy minister announced.

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Argentinean minister of Energy and Mining, Juan Jose Aranguren, announced the increase - the first of the year - this Friday.

Aranguren added that the scheduled increases for November and April 2018, "would be evaluated at another time or meeting."

The gas hike will begin as of Apr. 1 by upwards of 40 percent, local media reported.

Since coming to power the Macri government has approved a series of neoliberal measures that have shaken the economy by increasing the price of gasoline, gas, public transportation, and electricity.

Last October, Argentines protested much larger increases of between 300 and 400 percent for residential consumers and up to 500 percent for businesses.

Besides the hike in prices of basic services, the so-called tarifazos, as they were baptized here, in 2017 there have already been increases in electricity, fuel, the tolls and the so-called prepaid (medical private services).

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The announcement comes on the heels of massive teacher strikes against Macri's policies, while the country's largest trade union body has called for a general strike on Apr. 6.