More than half of Argentines are poor.
This is reflected in the official economic data released this Thursday, September 26, by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec).
The study shows that poverty reached the 52.9% in the first half of 2024which represents a 11 point increase with respect to the second half of 2023 and since Javier Milei assumed power last December.
In this way, the number of poor people in the South American country borders 25 million.
Although experts expected discouraging economic figures, the results continue to surprise since the poverty rate is the highest in the last 20 years (in 2004 it reached 56.8%).
According to Indec data, destitution also increased, reaching 18.1%which represents a jump of 6.2 points compared to the second half of 2023.
The situation is especially problematic in childhood: the data show that two thirds (66.1%) of those under 14 years of age They are part of households below the poverty line.
While the total percentage of poor people for the groups from 15 to 29 years old and from 30 to 64 years old is 60.7% and 48.6%, respectively. In the population aged 65 and over, the figure reaches 29.7%.
#DatoINDEC
El 52,9% de las personas de 31 aglomerados urbanos relevados por la Encuesta Permanente de Hogares formaba parte de hogares en condición de pobreza durante el 1° semestre de 2024 https://t.co/hGQZAqDqle pic.twitter.com/x0bXwZz3WN— INDEC Argentina (@INDECArgentina) September 26, 2024
“Disastrous inheritance”
The data comes after Milei decided to implement some radical changes in the economy of the country with the highest inflation in the world – today close to 240% annually – such as the unprecedented adjustment of public spending.
The president wants to achieve fiscal balance and the so-called “zero deficit”to guarantee that the State has more income than expenses.
Therefore, in Milei’s words, the fiscal balance “is not negotiated in any way” because he considers it the only way to lower prices, the most pressing problem for Argentines.
But the measures have dealt a hard blow to those who cannot even access the basic food basket.
Given the new poverty figures, the government blamed its predecessor, the Peronist Alberto Fernández, and the management of the previous 12 years of Kirchnerism in power.
In a press conference held prior to the publication of the economic data, the presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni assured that they received “a disastrous inheritance, one of the worst in Argentine history”a product of the “populist” policies that have been applied in the last two decades.
“If hyperinflation was not avoided, poverty would have gone from 40% to around 95% of the population. “They left us on the verge of being a country with practically all of its inhabitants poor,” said.
The spokesperson asked to “end the rhetoric of hypocrites, that when they govern they find a thousand and one excuses not to fulfill what they promise, and when they are in opposition they demand that the government solve the problems that they not only generated but did not solve in the last 16 years.”
Adorni insisted that the recovery “It is not achieved overnight.”
“A building is destroyed in a second and rebuilding it takes much longer, and that is what has happened in Argentina,” he said.
“No one said that it was a simple process or that the activity or salary would not suffer. They left us with a lot of bombs that we had to deactivate,” he added.
However, the opposition blamed the Milei government and its “adjustment policies”.
“In 6 months, the ‘largest adjustment in history’ impoverished more than 5.3 million Argentines and led more than 3 million to destitution,” said Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro, senator of the opposition Unión for the Homeland (Peronism), through his X account.
For her part, Cecilia Moreau, deputy of Unión por la Patria, indicated that the economic figures are “purely and exclusively the responsibility of this Government and are the most painful consequence of the adjustment policies that are being implemented.” on the middle sectors, workers, retirees and the most vulnerable.”
“There has never been an economic plan that, in such a short time, took so much from millions and gave it to so few,” he added.
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