55% of Argentina's population below poverty line, says UCA body
More than 55 percent of Argentina’s population were living below the poverty line at the end of the first half of the year, according to the latest report from an influential socio-economic watchdog.
According to an estimate from the Observatorio de la Deuda Social of the Universidad Católica Argentina (Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina, ODSA-UCA), 55.5 percent were considered poor at the halfway point of the year, with 17.5 percent of Argentines living in extreme poverty.
The figures indicate the impact of Argentina’s ongoing recession and runaway inflation, which exceeds 260 percent over the last 12 months.
ODSA-UCA’s figures show that 49.5 percent of the nation was living in poverty when President Javier Milei was sworn into office.
The private estimate is higher than Argentina’s most recent official rate, tracked by the INDEC national statistics bureau.
According to government data, 41.7 percent of inhabitants were living in poverty at the end of 2023, with 11.9 percent classified as destitute – i.e. their income does not suffice to purchase the minimum quantity of food for subsistence.
Rising poverty and destitution levels can be attributed in large measure to the impact of inflation in the early months, mostly in the item of food which affected the lowest classes of society.
Consumer prices have increased by 79.8 percent in the first half of the year, according to government data.
According to the UCA survey, 24.9 million urban residents were in a situation of poverty at the midpoint of the year. Those all failed to afford the total basic shopping basket, which last June cost 873,168 pesos for a couple with two children aged six and eight, according to INDEC data.
The basket has risen 76.1 percent in the first half of the year
UCA’s study assures that some 7.8 million people are in a state of extreme poverty.
“Total food insecurity for urban areas covered by the ODSA-UCA survey reaches 24.7 percent of people, 20.8 percent of households and 32.2 percent of children and adolescents,” highlighted the report.
Furthermore, “in an even graver situation with severe food insecurity are 10.9 percent of people, 8.8 percent of households and 13.9 percent of children and adolescents.”
Noting government efforts to assist those living in poverty, the UCA body indicated: “There are attempts to compensate for the elevated food deprivations suffered by the population with actions carried out from different levels of the state.”
“Considering children and adolescents, 42.6 percent reside in households receiving AUH+Tarjeta Alimentaria child benefits and food stamps, half attend school canteens, 36.7 receives food boxes or packages from these canteens and 11.1 percent receive food boxes or packages elsewhere with many households accumulating more than one benefit,” it concluded.
INDEC will publish its official poverty calculation for the first half of the year on September 26.
– TIMES/NA
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