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Economy What will the cost of living increases be for August 2024 (Utilities, transportation, rent, etc) ?

That turns out to be in USD $ 0.051 or 5.15 cents per kwh. Much cheaper than US where I'm paying about $0.15/kw but expensive for locals especially if they don't have efficient devices or good insulation.
Very true. It is still cheap at 5 cents a kWh. I have relatives in California paying over 34 cents per kWh. In Colombia it is about 20 cents per kWh. Uruguay 25 cents per kWh. Brazil 15 cents.

So while it may seem like they came up a lot, it is still very cheap by international standards. The goal is to get them up more.

While they were as low as 2 cents per KwH the past few years, it will head up.

 
Another increase, but this one mainly affects retirees, medication prices have gone up.

It will take a few years for these increases in prices for people to realize that whatever prices were for utilities and other expenses was a mirage. I don't think we will ever see as low utility prices ever again. Even if somehow the Peronistas were to come back into power. Thanks @oil rush for posting that URL link. That probably is also on the low end.

@FuturoBA if I recall correctly you're in Texas where electricity prices are fairly cheap but many states are much higher kWh price. I'm not sure what the correct formula is to raise utility prices. Milei said that he wanted to do as much as he can ASAP but I do agree with Betsy you can't put all of these increases too soon. Probably makes sense to do a certain amount each year but if some of these companies get privatized my guess is they go way way up.
 
Very true. It is still cheap at 5 cents a kWh. I have relatives in California paying over 34 cents per kWh. In Colombia it is about 20 cents per kWh. Uruguay 25 cents per kWh. Brazil 15 cents.

So while it may seem like they came up a lot, it is still very cheap by international standards. The goal is to get them up more.

While they were as low as 2 cents per KwH the past few years, it will head up.

Wow! 2 cents per kwh is crazy! How can they even make any money at those prices???!
 
They weren't making any money at all. That's the urgency in increasing the prices to at least cover the cost of providing the service. They are losing lots of money at those prices.
Correct. As of March 2024 they were about 64% of the actual cost. Hopefully with these price increases lately they are at least breaking even. I posted about this before.

 
Correct. As of March 2024 they were about 64% of the actual cost. Hopefully with these price increases lately they are at least breaking even. I posted about this before.

Interesting. So it looks like when President Macri came into office in 2015 he did the same thing raising the utility prices and lowering subsidies. Then in 2019 when he lost they heavily subsidized it again. It is amazing to see that sharp spike up in a matter of months vs. years like before. I guess in theory, if Peronistas come back into power they will just lower rates again?

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Very true. It is still cheap at 5 cents a kWh. I have relatives in California paying over 34 cents per kWh. In Colombia it is about 20 cents per kWh. Uruguay 25 cents per kWh. Brazil 15 cents.

So while it may seem like they came up a lot, it is still very cheap by international standards. The goal is to get them up more.

While they were as low as 2 cents per KwH the past few years, it will head up.

Correct and also keep in mind in many cities/countries there are progressive rates, so the more you use the higher the rates are in tiered brackets. I've experienced this in many countries where I own properties. In this way, they allow utility rates to be fairly cheap for those that don't have much money. But the more you use, the more expensive the kwh, or water usage gets.

My electricity bills in Mexico are very expensive. I have some Airbnbs with air conditioning and people just keep them running. I have had to change it where I will give them a certain kwh per day free but start charging for anything that exceeds that as I swear I had someone mining bitcoin in one of my properties. In Punta del Este, Uruguay where I owned a house, they wouldn't charge much to locals that didn't use much but if you had a big yard or pool and used a lot of water the prices would be sky high. I used to joke there wine is cheaper than water.
 
It will take a few years for these increases in prices for people to realize that whatever prices were for utilities and other expenses was a mirage. I don't think we will ever see as low utility prices ever again. Even if somehow the Peronistas were to come back into power. Thanks @oil rush for posting that URL link. That probably is also on the low end.

@FuturoBA if I recall correctly you're in Texas where electricity prices are fairly cheap but many states are much higher kWh price. I'm not sure what the correct formula is to raise utility prices. Milei said that he wanted to do as much as he can ASAP but I do agree with Betsy you can't put all of these increases too soon. Probably makes sense to do a certain amount each year but if some of these companies get privatized my guess is they go way way up.

Yes Texas is cheaper and just looked it up, didn't realize just how much cheaper it was than many parts of the country. Also agree with not increasing everything too much too fast, but it may be one of those if he doesn't do it soon he may not have the support to do it later. Or it could be setting up everyone to expect big increases so when a smaller or more manageable increase comes, psychologically it doesn't seem as bad. A psychological phenomenon called the door-in-face technique.

Correct and also keep in mind in many cities/countries there are progressive rates, so the more you use the higher the rates are in tiered brackets. I've experienced this in many countries where I own properties. In this way, they allow utility rates to be fairly cheap for those that don't have much money. But the more you use, the more expensive the kwh, or water usage gets.

My electricity bills in Mexico are very expensive. I have some Airbnbs with air conditioning and people just keep them running. I have had to change it where I will give them a certain kwh per day free but start charging for anything that exceeds that as I swear I had someone mining bitcoin in one of my properties. In Punta del Este, Uruguay where I owned a house, they wouldn't charge much to locals that didn't use much but if you had a big yard or pool and used a lot of water the prices would be sky high. I used to joke there wine is cheaper than water.

With energy being so cheap in Argentina I wonder why there doesn't seem to be more bitcoin mining operations, or at least not many I've heard of. This reminds me of a story in Texas last year during the heat wave how a bitcoin miner got paid $31 million NOT to mine.

 
Yes Texas is cheaper and just looked it up, didn't realize just how much cheaper it was than many parts of the country. Also agree with not increasing everything too much too fast, but it may be one of those if he doesn't do it soon he may not have the support to do it later. Or it could be setting up everyone to expect big increases so when a smaller or more manageable increase comes, psychologically it doesn't seem as bad. A psychological phenomenon called the door-in-face technique.



With energy being so cheap in Argentina I wonder why there doesn't seem to be more bitcoin mining operations, or at least not many I've heard of. This reminds me of a story in Texas last year during the heat wave how a bitcoin miner got paid $31 million NOT to mine.

What I like about Milei is he was pretty honest from the beginning of what it would take to turn things around, that it would be very painful, that it won't be quick, and that it will probably get even more painful until the end of the year. No BS brutally honest. They had to raise them to at least cover the cost of the electricity. I think with this latest increase I hope they are there. Just as I think they had to raise rates, I think they have to be careful letting companies just raise whatever they want or you will see what happened in healthcare rates where they just shot up overnight. They still never lowered it even though they said they would. Mine went down about $10 bucks and that's it.

@FuturoBA there actually are more companies setting up shop for mining bitcoin here. I recall reading about it but I'm not sure if it was on this forum or just a post but there are companies setting up or in the process of setting up here. Lots of cheap oil and gas here. That is crazy about getting paid not to mine bitcoin. I would just assume the government would have the power to just stop them without paying them in times of emergency.
 
Yes Texas is cheaper and just looked it up, didn't realize just how much cheaper it was than many parts of the country. Also agree with not increasing everything too much too fast, but it may be one of those if he doesn't do it soon he may not have the support to do it later. Or it could be setting up everyone to expect big increases so when a smaller or more manageable increase comes, psychologically it doesn't seem as bad. A psychological phenomenon called the door-in-face technique.



With energy being so cheap in Argentina I wonder why there doesn't seem to be more bitcoin mining operations, or at least not many I've heard of. This reminds me of a story in Texas last year during the heat wave how a bitcoin miner got paid $31 million NOT to mine.

@FuturoBA there are companies that are already partnering to come and mine bitcoin here.

 
Finally, today the bus fare increased. The minimum bus fare in Buenos Aires went up from $270 to $371.13 with the registered SUBE card.


 
The fiscal adjustment in the first half of the year was the largest in over 60 years. Milei is really making history... I hope all this is worth it, because many people are having a really hard time. It's sad to see that one of the most affected sectors by the cuts is retirees, who ironically receive the least money.

 
The fiscal adjustment in the first half of the year was the largest in over 60 years. Milei is really making history... I hope all this is worth it, because many people are having a really hard time. It's sad to see that one of the most affected sectors by the cuts is retirees, who ironically receive the least money.

It is painful this kind of adjustment but they need to fix all of these problems as prices were too low for too many years. The majority here even if it is painful they understand why it is necessary to fix Argentina for one and for all.
 
It is painful this kind of adjustment but they need to fix all of these problems as prices were too low for too many years. The majority here even if it is painful they understand why it is necessary to fix Argentina for one and for all.
No doubt the adjustment is needed but it is going to be a painful year. That is part of the reason we moved out of Buenos Aires. Fortunately people are still willing to give this government administration a while but inflation is still bad there. And many companies can't afford to raise their prices and people are cutting back spending. We see it across many businesses of people we know in Argentina.
 
Aside from the adjustments, good times are on the way: lower country taxes, lower inflation. Everything will take time, but I have faith that this country will recover soon.

 
Aside from the adjustments, good times are on the way: lower country taxes, lower inflation. Everything will take time, but I have faith that this country will recover soon.

This is the reason we moved down here. We have had a lot of inflation in the USA too. It is nothing like they portray on the news with low inflation. Everything is very expensive in many places in the USA. The last straw was we couldn't easily insure our home as many companies are leaving the state so our insurance premium went up 200%!
 
Finally, today the bus fare increased. The minimum bus fare in Buenos Aires went up from $270 to $371.13 with the registered SUBE card.


BA has one of the lowest bus fares in Argentina
 
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