MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: 30.4% (10.8 m) live below the poverty line

Higher food and fuel prices plunged 1.3 million Argentines below the poverty line in 2007, which means the income of 10.8 million Argentines is not enough to cover the costs of the basic food basket, according to a paper from the Buenos Aires think tank Sociedad de Estudios Laborales, SEL.

This means that in the second half of last year, 30.4% of the total Argentine population was below the poverty line, compared to the 28.3% of the first half and the 26.9% of 2006; nevertheless, a significant advance from the over 50% of 2002 and 2003. The 2007 second half figure is obtained taking into account that the basic food basket increased 7.7% and not 2.9% as the official Argentine index pretends. The 10.8 million poor includes 3.5 million indigents. However SEL also makes the projection if the official controversial Indec (Institute of Statistics and Census) were to be considered scientifically correct In this hypothetical case the below poverty line percentage would stand at 22.4% in the second half of 2007, which is 4.5 percentage points less that in the second half of 2006, totaling 7.8 million Argentines described as poor. SEL also points out that in spite of the increase in the number of poor people the income of workers, formal or informal, as well as those retired actually increased and significantly. On average per capita income in the twelve months period to the end of 2007 increased 22%. Why then did this not leak down to the less fortunate? Because the basic food basket in that period soared 37.5% and not the 11.1% of the official questioned Indec argues SEL. SEL estimates the basic food basket for an adult male in 58 US dollars but for Indec it stands at 47.6 US dollars. Similarly according to the official Kirchner administration statistics office a family of four, young couple and two children, needed a monthly income of 318 US dollars to be just over the poverty line. But for SEL the minimum is 395 US dollars. SEL also underlines that social inequality in spite of the increase in the number of poor people, tends to be less steep. This means that for the 30% in the lowest bracket of the pyramid, income overall increased 25%, while for the top 30%, the increase was 21%. So the gap factor between the "richest" and the "poorest" dropped from 28.3 to 27, a significant multiplier but still far better than the 36.1 of 2003.