McDonald’s Agrees to Cut the Price of a Venezuelan Big Mac Combo

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-14/mcdonald-s-agrees-to-cut-the-price-of-a-venezuelan-big-mac-combo.html

McDonald’s Corp. (MCD)’s largest franchisee agreed to cut the cost of a Big Mac Combo in Venezuela as the Latin American nation struggles to control the world’s fastest inflation.

The price of a Big Mac Duo Combo of a hamburger plus drink will drop 7.5 percent, while french fries and soft drinks will fall 10 percent, a spokesman for Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. (ARCO), who can’t be named because of company policy, said in a telephone interview from Caracas today. The decision to cut some prices came a week after the government inspected the company’s offices.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government is stepping up price controls after inflation spiralled to 56 percent and shortages of basic goods worsened. The policy is an “economic counterattack” against the “parasitic bourgeoisie,” he said in November. Since then, price regulators backed by the military have forced more than 1,000 businesses to lower prices on everything from electronics to toys.
--------------

Arcos Dorados, which operates all 139 McDonald’s in Venezuela, is selling a Big Mac in Caracas today for 69 bolivars ($10.9), or $1 at the black market rate. Shares in the company, the largest operator of McDonalds restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean, fell 1.9 percent to $10.88 in New York as of 12:23 p.m. The company operates or franchises more than 1,990 McDonald’s in 20 countries, according to its website.