“hard timesThe trademark of Argentine President Alberto Fernández is reflected in the sad figures: 39.2% of the population is poor. In the latest measurement by the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INDEC), poverty plagued 36.5% of residents. In a country with an estimated population of 46.2 million, new official figures show that 18.1 million citizens are below the poverty line, and 3.7 million among them are in need. The increase in this societal scourge has not been halted by the economy’s growth of 5.2% in 2022, or unemployment falling from 7% to 6.3%. The big innovation in Argentina after the pandemic is the increase in GDP, but wages have lost a third of their purchasing power.
Poverty hits hard People 0 to 14 years old: poor: 54.2% While this rate is 45% for young people aged 15-29, this rate drops to 35% for those aged 30-64.
The Northwest and Northeast regions are the regions most affected by the crisis (43.6% and 43.1%, respectively). It reaches 39.5% in the city of Buenos Aires and its crowded surroundings.
Inflation, currently at 100% per year, is considered one of the main factors in worsening the situation. Expectations for 2023 are not optimistic. In fact, a higher-than-expected increase in the cost of living is expected in March. The horizon of expectations narrowed considerably due to the drought that caused a loss of 15 billion dollars and the melting of the Central Bank reserves. At best, the economy will shrink by half a point at the end of the year.
government response
“It’s a figure that hurts us, it keeps us busy, so we work every day to tackle it,” said Victoria Tolosa Paz, Minister for Social Development. The worsening of poverty “clearly has to do with the deterioration of income,” according to the official.
Poverty data is a big problem for the ruling Peronist government. Not only is it currently lacking a competitive candidate for the October presidential election, it is also likely to lose much more votes as a result of economic regulation than in the 2021 parliamentary elections, where the ruling party got four million. votes less than in 2019.
In the context of this discomfort, the far-right javier mile and the traditional right, embodied in its front candidates Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich, seem to be taking advantage of social anger as election time approaches.