Argentine Supreme Court strikes down President Macri's natural gas hikes nationwide.

Argentina's Supreme Court today annulled the drastic natural gas hikes implemented by the Mauricio Macri administration. The justices, who voted unanimously, urged the national government to call public hearings before deciding on utility rate hikes.

The ruling, which upholds a July 18 injunction against the rate hikes issued by Federal Judge Luis Arias of La Plata, suspends the increases for residential users nationwide. A separate injunction issued by Federal Judge Martina Forns of San Martín on August 4 has suspended electricity rate hikes as well, and was likewise appealed by the Macri administration.

The courts have determined in each case that the hikes were not only “unreasonable” but illegal because they were never submitted to public comment, as the law requires for all large rate hikes.

A poll conducted by the University of Buenos Aires School of Social Sciences showed that 77% of Argentines have had to make "significant adjustments" in their household budgets to pay rate hikes ranging from 300% more for water, 600% more for electricity, and 1000% more for gas (as well as public transport fare hikes of 100%).

The rate hikes - known in Argentina as tarifazos - are part of a broader, IMF-endorsed austerity package which Macri defends as a way to trim $4 billion from the nation's budget deficit of $25 billion last year (4% of GDP).

Critics, however, point out that because the massive rate hikes also affect schools, hospitals, and many other public institutions, the net savings would be at most $1 billion - a figure dwarfed by the $10 billion in tax cuts Macri enacted for agroexporters, large corporations, and the well-to-do.

The rate hikes threatened to aggravate what is already the worst economic situation for the country since the 2002 crisis, with GDP down 3%, retail sales down 8%, and a doubling in overall inflation to 47% a year.

At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/220128/breaking-court-voids-natural-gas-hikes-nationwide