One of the biggest drivers of inflation is the crushing cost of a gallon of gasoline.
A minor buffer for that pain used to be when notices of changes in the pump price were sent out by the Ministry of Finance the evening before new pump prices went into effect. This gave car owners some advance notice and allowed them to save a few pennies by putting in that twenty or fifty dollars the evening before the increase.
Well, the Prime Minister seems not to know of that added public benefit - and didn't seem interested in re-instituting that public information practice.
Reporter
"Is it a policy decision to not announce the fuel price increases at the pumps or resume announcing them because it was done before? It can't be that someone's just forgetting."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't deal with that. They only ask me when to sign it and then somebody else deal with that. So I'd have to find out, yes finance."
Jules Vasquez
"You're the minister of finance. It's under your hand."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It's under the minister of finance. That's just true."
Jules Vasquez
"But would you urge them to do it? Because you know it just seems like ill fate towards the public by not announcing it when a precedent had been established to regularly announce it."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It's probably something to consider."
