El Caribe newspaper questions whether or not the Institute for Price Stabilization (INESPRE) is a needed appendage of the government or not. For the paper, the clients of the ?Houses of Horrors?, that is to say the supermarkets and corner stores of the country, are relieved to know that there are limits on the price of chickens, eggs, bottled water, sugar and cement. But the paper warns that price freezes could become a boomerang that brings scarcity and high prices on the way back. After giving a brief analysis of just how sales prices are calculated, the reporter Daryelin Torres, says that the stream of producer to buyer is what allows millions of Dominicans to live off the fruits they produce. However, some products are sold at below-cost prices, such as poultry, which should sell for RD$20.95 a pound on the farm in order to get a 10% profit margin, and not the RD$19.00 a pound dictated by Price Control Resolution 03-2004.
Executives from the Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE) and the Dominican Association of Industries (AIRD) spoke out against price controls. Lisandro Macarrulla told the press that INESPRE was an ?anachronism,? and Circe Almanzar from ANJE said that if producers begin to suffer losses, they will just get out of the market. She followed up by saying that ?competition is the only thing that regulates prices.? Industry & Commerce Minister Sonia Guzman said that her ministry does not control prices but rather it tries to dissuade commerce from speculating with prices. ?The law of supply and demand is not there to abuse or monopolize a market to the detriment of the people, ? she emphasized.
Since 2000, INESPRE has only emitted 12 resolutions, of which only four are still in effect. The economic advisor to the Chamber of Deputies, Federico Cuello has an interesting observation. He says that INESPRE was created for an economic model of import substitutions which is no longer operative in the Dominican Republic. ?Growth,? he said ?is based on exports and we are on the way towards free trade and the elimination of trade barriers.?