Argentina’s poverty rate has risen to nearly 53% in the first six months of President Javier Millei’s presidency, providing the first hard evidence of how far-right libertarian austerity measures are affecting the population. It became.
The new poverty rate announced Thursday by the Government Statistics Office means 3.4 million Argentines have fallen into poverty this year, the highest level in the past 20 years, when Argentina was mired in a devastating economic crisis. .
Since taking office in December, the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” — who campaigned with a chainsaw as a symbol of the cuts he would make — has campaigned for public funds to curb chronic inflation and eliminate the budget deficit. We have been cutting back on spending.
The administration froze pensions, cut aid to soup kitchens, slashed welfare programs and shut down all public services. Tens of thousands of civil servants have been laid off, and cuts to energy and transport subsidies have increased costs and reduced purchasing power.
Kirsten Zanebroek, a Latin America expert at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said she had never seen poverty rates rise so dramatically. “This new economic plan does not protect the poor,” she said. “That jump is really scary.”
But Millay’s cuts have been welcomed by markets, investors and the International Monetary Fund, to which Argentina owes $43 billion. The monthly inflation rate also fell from about 26% in December to about 4% in June, and has remained the same since then, but the annual inflation rate still exceeds 230%, the highest level in the world.
Maria Claudia Albornoz, a community activist in Santa Fe, said the government had “created a desperate situation.” “We feel in the fridge, empty, unplugged. Money really has no value. We have three jobs, but it’s not enough. It’s not,” she said.
Katarina, a 33-year-old worker at the Ministry of Justice, was among the victims and was told last week that she would soon lose her job.
“Last week, 2,500 of us were told that we would lose our jobs by the end of this year, except for a few ‘lucky ones’ who would be offered to continue working the same number of hours for half the pay,” she said. . . “I’ve been looking for another job for months and I don’t have one. I don’t know how to get one. It’s scary.”
Christopher Sabatini, senior Latin America fellow at Chatham House, said economic decline is inevitable in order to curb inflation, pointing out that similar historical crises are occurring in Brazil and Bolivia. I doubted whether it would work.
“That’s dangerous territory. The question is, is there any benefit to tightening this belt? What comes next? Will he actually be able to control public sector spending? Can he strengthen the currency? Failure to do so will only create poverty,” he said.
Although Millais’ approval rating remains high, public support now appears to be declining. The drop in September was about 15%, according to the survey released Monday, the steepest drop during the administration’s nine months. Recent polls have found that concerns about inflation have been replaced by concerns about unemployment and poverty.
“For a county that has historically prided itself on being a middle-class state, these poverty rates are extremely distressing,” Sabatini said.
Presidential spokesperson Milais said the government had “inherited a dire situation” from previous left-wing governments.
“They left us on the brink of becoming a country where virtually all of our residents are poor,” Manuel Adorni said. “Poverty at any level is frightening, and we are doing everything we can to change this.”