MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

In Tierra del Fuego, 39% of the population are below the poverty line

Indec reports that the average income of a poor household was equivalent to 250 dollars at the official exchange rate and US$ 125 at the blue or free market

Some 39% of the population from the province of Tierra del Fuego are below the poverty line according to the latest numbers from the first half of this year and released by the Argentine official stats office, Indec.

This means that 64,000 of the 152,000 residents of the extreme south province are poor which is almost the same as the national average for the whole country.

This represents 15,3 percentage points more than two years ago when it stood at 24%, The percentage of households below the poverty line is 28,4% where 39,7% of the population live. This includes 7,5% of households below the indigence line with 9,8% of the population. In other words, there are 15,824 poor households and 4,172 living in indigence conditions. in the y to y stats households are up 15,3 percentage points, while indigent households increased 4,4%.

Furthermore, the Indec reports state that the average income of a poor household was 25,759 Pesos equivalent to 250 dollars at the official exchange rate and US$ 125 at the blue or free market. However, the so-called Basic Food Basket for this category reached 43,785 Pesos, which is US$ 430 and US$ 215. The gap between the poverty line and the Basic Food Basket climbed to 42%.

At the national level in Argentina, children up to the age of 14 are the poorest with 56,3% of them in such condition, while the group from 15 to 29 has experienced an increase of 7,1 percentage points and for those between 30 and 64, 5,4 percentage points.

Inflation stats for Patagonia indicate that during September the Consumer Price Index, CPI, was up 3,7% and 53,5% in the last twelve months. In Patagonia, the items with the greatest increase were Alcoholic beverages and tobacco, 5,8%, Leisure and Culture 5,7%, Clothing and Footwear, 5,1%. Food and non-alcoholic beverage climbed 3,5%
Inflation in the first nine months of 2021 was 39,9%, with Transport, plus Clothing and Footwear, both with 49,2% the highest, followed by Hotels and Restaurants, 45,1%. At the other end housing, public utility rates and fuel were up 25%.

However this month the CPI rate should be lower since the Kirchner government decided to freeze the price of 1,200 retail prices and utility rates will remain unchanged, ahead of the 14 November midterm election.