“Things have been bad for a while, salaries are not enough to eat, neither is state aid,” says Noelia, 38 years old.
She and her three children feed themselves with the help of the Little Braves community kitchen, in the El Claro neighborhood, in Benavídez, located in the so-called second cordon of the Buenos Aires suburbs, the area with the most population in the country and the largest number of “ “slums” or informal settlements.
“Thank goodness we have this. Sometimes this is our only meal of the day”, he tells BBC Mundo, while waiting for his turn to take a container full of polenta and tomato sauce.
María José Games, who delivers the food, founded the soup kitchen a decade ago together with a group of mothers who worked against gender violence. He says that in the last year the number of families that come to ask for help almost doubled.
“After the pandemic the situation had improved and we helped about 70 families. But in the last year 60 more were added. And there are others on the waiting list, because we can’t cope,” he says.
He also states that several are in the same group as Noelia: “For many families, this is the only meal of the day”.
“On Wednesdays, when the dining room does not open, at home we eat mate cooked with bread”says Rosa, 57, who is also waiting her turn to take a portion of polenta.
Noelia, Rosa and their families are some of the almost 25 million people living below the poverty line in Argentina, as recently revealed by a report from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).
The figures, which measured the first half of 2024, show that in the country there are more poor Argentines than non-poor: they are almost 53%, that is: more than half of the population.
But the strongest data is that the worst poverty and indigence rates occur among the children.
More than 66% of children under 14 years of age are poorin other words: 2 out of 3.
A report published by Unicef Argentina last August revealed that “every day, a million girls and boys go to sleep without dinner in the country.”
Meanwhile, one and a half million skip meals during the day.
Those who do have access to food can no longer afford the price of the most nutritious foods.
“We don’t eat meat anymore. We eat noodles with cheese and that’s it,” says Noelia.
Even soup kitchens, many of which depend on private help, can no longer offer meat, vegetables and fruit on a daily basis.
“A kilo of meat costs almost 10,000 pesos (10 dollars),” says José Cuello, who coordinates another soup kitchen, called Un Lugarcito, in a neighborhood half an hour away. “Today a work day pays 15,000“.
The child malnutrition It is wreaking havoc on the health of the population that represents the future of Argentina.
Norma Piazza, a pediatrician specializing in nutrition, told Reuters that some children were being hospitalized with neurological problems and seizures due to vitamin deficiency such as B12, something associated with the lack of meat consumption.
“We are seeing cases of scurvy, cases of eye injuries due to vitamin A deficiency,” he added, referring to the essential nutrient found in many vegetables, fruits and dairy products.
“These things existed in Central America, Africa, Asia, but we have never seen patients here with eye injuries due to lack of vitamin A.”
Indec figures show that poverty registered a huge jump in the first six months of the government of Javier Milei, who came to power last December.
It increased more than 11 points since the second half of 2023.
In practice, it means that more than 5 million people fell into poverty in the first half of the year.
Of them, 3 million fell into destitution (that is, they do not have enough to eat).
It is about the biggest increase in poverty in the last 20 years.
Although the indices had been increasing in recent years as a consequence of the long economic recession and growing inflation, which has been above 25% annually for more than a decade and accelerated from 100% to more than 200% in 2023the big jump occurred in the first quarter of this year.
In just three months, prices increased more than 50%.
The government attributed this acceleration in inflation to the giant increase in public spending that the Kirchner administration carried out the previous year, during the electoral campaign, to try to stay in power.
But a determining factor was the devaluation of more than 50% of the value of the peso that Milei barely assumed, and the almost total liberation of prices and rates.
At the same time, the government has carried out the largest fiscal adjustment in historyreducing about a third of public spending.
Asked how much responsibility the government has for the new poverty rates, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said in an interview with the LN+ news channel: “To this government, zero.”
“We saved poverty from being much higher,” he said.
According to libertarians, the measures they took allowed the country avoid a new hyperinflationary crisis like the one he suffered in 1989, which then doubled the poverty figures.
“Today we would be talking about 95% poor,” Milei himself said in an interview with the famous television presenter Susana Giménez, a figure that has been questioned by a large number of economists.
Poor with work
The current poverty levels were only surpassed by those recorded after the worst crisis that Argentina experienced, after the economic, political and social outbreak of December 2001.
Poverty reached 65.6% in 2002, which was a record since Indec began monitoring the evolution of this phenomenon in 1988.
As now, many suffered the impact of a strong depreciation of the peso, which lost three-quarters of its value in a few months.
But another large part of the phenomenon was due to unemployment, which was also recordexceeding 21%, which left millions of families without a livelihood.
Now, however, unemployment is relatively low: 7.6% (it increased 1.9 points in the first half, despite fears that Milei’s “adjustment” could lead to much more worrying rates).
On the other hand, currently the most vulnerable receive a whole series of financial aid -“social plans”- that did not exist two decades ago, and that precisely began to be provided as a consequence of the 2001-2002 crisis.
Why then did poverty increase so much?
The explanation is in the fall in purchasing power of incomewhich have not kept pace with inflation, leading to a relatively new phenomenon in this country: that of poor workers.
A problem aggravated by the increase in informal employment – the sector with the lowest income – which today represents about 47% of workersaccording to official figures.
Although the loss in the value of income has been going on for years, it was deepened by the devaluation and the inflationary jump in the first quarter of this year.
According to the Gino Germani Institute, dependent on the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), 70% of unregistered workers remained below the poverty line.
Meanwhile, the 30% of white employees -more than two million people- also they are poor.
“I never remember in my life that a day’s work not even enough to buy two kilos of Milanese“José Cuello from the Un Lugarcito dining room told BBC Mundo.
“It’s not enough”
The government affirms that the measures it takes, in particular the drastic cut in public spending, seek reduce inflationwhich is the main reason why income has lost so much value.
Furthermore, they aim to encourage private employmentwhich has been stagnant for more than a decade, and reduce the state, which in recent years has become the main generator of work (and a significant burden on public coffers).
While carrying out what Milei himself has defined as “the largest adjustment in the history of humanity,” the authorities assure that they have strengthened social aid to protect the most vulnerable.
A report published at the end of September by the Ministry of Human Capital – created by the libertarian government to group together the former portfolios of Labor, Education, Social Development and Culture – indicated that strong increases were made in three of the main benefits that the poorest receive. :
- The Universal Child Allowance: increased 374%
- The Feeding Benefit (a card to buy food): increased 138%
- He 1,000 Days Plan (for children in their first three years of life): increased 1,323%
- In which areas has Milei increased spending in Argentina amid its tough adjustment plan
According to the government, with this aid “97.7% of the basic food basket is covered”, which is what determines the level of indigence. A much higher percentage than with previous governments.
However, this calculation only takes into account the needs of a minor, and assuming that he or she is an only child.
If one takes a “type family” (two adults and two minors), the aid covers 50% of the cost of basic foods so as not to be destitute.
And if there are more children – as is often the case in many lower-income families – the percentage is reduced even further.
Gisela, 31, has five children, and says that while aid has increased, prices have increased much more.
“It’s not enough”, he says, while waiting for his container of polenta. “One says: ‘you have the help of the State.’ Yes, but Just as they help you, things increase for you.”.
It refers to the general liberalization of prices, mainly of food, which were regulated during the Kirchnerist governments.
Also to the increase in rates: according to the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy (IIEP), of the UBA, the basic basket of electricity, gas, water and transportation services for a typical family in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires rose 370% since Milei took office, more than double the current inflation mulled during that period.
But even within the ideological spectrum related to the government there are questions about state aid.
“Democracy brought us freedom but not progress. Since 1983 (end of the dictatorship), Argentina added 17 million people: 14 million poor and 3 million non-poor. That is to say, 82% of demographic growth was poverty growth,” maintains a harsh report published by the Pensar Foundation, of former president Mauricio Macri, an ally of Milei.
The document questions the effectiveness of “social plans” and public employment as tools to reduce poverty.
Although state aid “almost tripled” in the last 15 years, currently “1 out of every 2 Argentines and 7 out of every 10 kids are poor”, he maintains.
It also compares Argentina, where poverty has doubled since 2017, with other countries in the region that they managed to reduce that rate since 2011, such as Chile (-26%), El Salvador (-22%) and Mexico (-18%).
“Hope”
After the publication of the poverty indices, the government pointed to a hopeful fact: the second quarter showed an improvement over the firsta trend that – they assure – will continue.
“The different indicators are showing that The bottom of the economy was touched between April and May and that from now on only good news left”, assured the president to Susana Giménez, three days after the new Indec figures were known.
For his part, last Sunday, Luis Caputo was equally optimistic, especially given the fall in inflation, which started the year above 20% monthly and in September fell to 3.5%.
“To the extent that there is less inflationthere is more stability, which generates better economic expectations. Argentina is a country rich in opportunities, so a stable macroeconomic framework must be provided, and investments begin to arrive. And we are already seeing it,” he assured.
The minister asked to have faith that things will improve.
“To those who are having a hard time today, I tell you that Have more hope than ever, that the worst is over and today we can begin to show results,” he told LN+.
Do you have hope? This media outlet asked the group of women waiting for their food in the El Claro neighborhood.
“Not really, because we are getting worse and worse.”Gisela responded, while the rest shook their heads from side to side, indicating a negative response.
In the dining room Un Lugarcito I asked the same question to a group of children.
Do you think they will be better in the future, as the government says?
“I do because I’m going to be a narco”, responded a 12-year-old boy, one of several who dropped out of school because “he didn’t understand anything.”
Although the response generated laughter from his friends, one of the elders of the group assured, in all seriousness, that in that neighborhood selling drugs “is a good job opportunity”.
Give a better future to these children, raised by families that for the most part They have depended on state aid for several generations. and informal jobs such as “changas” (occasional jobs), is, without a doubt, the greatest challenge that Argentina faces today.
Many of the 56% of Argentines who voted for Milei last December share his belief that, without drastic change, things will only they were going to get worse.
A survey carried out by the University of San Andrés last July showed that, although half of those interviewed (49%) maintained that the situation in the country had worsened during the first semester, 43% believed that things would improve.
But the decline in the president’s image in the latest polls suggests that the number of those who begin to doubt is increasing whether the harsh measures implemented by the libertarian economist will change this trend or whether they will plunge the country into an even deeper hole.
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- Poverty in Argentina reaches 52.9% in the first half of 2024, an increase of 11 points since Javier Milei took office
- In which areas has Milei increased spending in Argentina amid its tough adjustment plan
- 5 of Milei’s most radical decisions in his first semester as president of Argentina (and what effect they had)