How governments are trying to ease the pain of inflation

AMERICAS:

• Brazil’s Congress approved a constitutional amendment in December that increases the government’s spending ceiling to maintain social assistance payments to poor families in 2023.
• Colombia raised the minimum wage by 16% by 2023.
• Last year, the Argentine government agreed with the country’s main oil companies to limit increases in fuel prices and signed an agreement with supermarkets and suppliers of mass consumption goods to freeze or strictly regulate the prices of some 1,500 products.
• The US government announced measures in November to reduce household energy bills. The administration unveiled the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act in August.
• Mexico raised the minimum wage by 20% by 2023.

EUROPE:

• Energy ministers from European Union nations agreed in December to cap gas prices across the bloc. The limit will come into effect from February 15.
• Germany plans to spend 14.5 billion euros ($15.51 billion) to finance its electricity price cap until May as part of a package Berlin laid out last year.
• France’s energy providers have agreed to offer small businesses battling price hikes a guaranteed rate per megawatt hour. President Emmanuel Macron had urged companies like EDF and TotalEnergies to do more to help customers.
• Italy’s government plans to review and extend existing relief measures aimed at helping families and businesses with energy prices.
• Spain’s coalition government will approve an 8% increase in the national minimum wage this year. At the end of December, the government announced aid measures worth 10 billion euros.
• The Czech government approved in December to increase the monthly minimum wage by 6.8% from 2023.
• Slovakia has approved maximum prices for electricity production depending on the type of fuel used, as it seeks income to help households.
• Denmark’s government has agreed with parliament to spend 2.4 billion Danish crowns ($344.94 million) on an aid package.
• Portugal limited the increase in the regulated price of electricity this year to 3.3% for around 1 million households and small businesses.
• Belarus last year banned consumer price increases.
• Croatia has capped electricity prices until March 1.

PACIFIC ASIA:

• New Zealand will extend the duration of cuts to excise duty on fuel and public transport fares until the end of June.
• Wheat prices in India have fallen nearly 13% from record highs since the government in January allowed flour millers to buy up to 3 million tonnes of the grain from state reserves.
• The Philippine president approved the recommendation of the Ministry of Economy to extend the lower tariff rates on rice and other foods until the end of 2023.
• Last year, Australia passed a law that sets a price cap for natural gas for one year.
• Japan will spend $200 billion on a package that includes subsidies for electricity and gasoline bills.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST:

• Under government pressure, Turkey’s largest supermarket chains froze or reduced prices on hundreds of products until January. The government raised the monthly minimum wage by 50% from the level determined in July.
• Egyptians flock to the “Ahlan (Welcome) Ramadan” discount markets that opened nearly three months before the Muslim holy month. The Supply Ministry said the scheme, which offers basic goods at prices cheaper than in stores, will last until the end of April.
• Israel will cancel or reduce recent increases in property taxes, water and energy costs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in January.