President Mauricio Macri on Thursday asked Argentines for patience in weathering an economic crisis this year and pledged to increase social spending in the coming months, a day after reaching a US$ 57.1 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund.
More Argentines are likely living in poverty now compared with last year, President Mauricio Macri said on Friday, as the country's economy slides toward recession following a currency crisis and a severe drought that harmed farm output.
Argentina's official poverty index in the second half of 2016 dropped to 30.3%, an estimated 12.7 million people, from 32.2% in the first half according to the country's stats office Indec. The 30.3% index includes 6.1% of indigence, which is also below the 6.3% of the first half. The drop means that 800.000 people are no longer in the poverty category index.
Argentina urban poverty rate rose to 32.9% in the third quarter of 2016, which means 13 million people due to a precarious labor market and lack of long-term development policies, according to a report presented last week by the Social Debt Observatory from the Argentine Catholic University (UCA).
An Argentine average household made up of a couple with two children 6 and 8 years old needs 12.489 Pesos (approx US$ 820) to remain above the poverty line according to the stats office, Indec estimate for the month of August. The same household will have to pay 5.176 Pesos (approx US$ 340) for the Basic food basket, not to drop to indigence.
A new report released by the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) points to a somewhat bleak outlook on Argentina’s current socioeconomic situation, with the revelation that 1.4 million people fell into poverty between December 2015 and April 2016. The report also provides a qualitative commentary criticizing President Mauricio Macri’s social policies.
In a one hour speech before the Argentine congress, president Mauricio Macri spent half the time describing the country he received and in the other half made some announcements, but above all tried to transmit optimism, willingness to overcome, and insisted in the three pillars of his electoral pledge, eliminating poverty, combating drug-trafficking and unity among all Argentines.
The Catholic church warned of the true reality of infant malnutrition and structural poverty which does 'not yield' in Argentina, on launching the traditional funds' collection More for Less which took place over the weekend under the motto Let's give more so that less suffer.
Poverty and malnutrition are back on the Argentine presidential campaign debate as a consequence of the death of a 14-year old boy from an indigenous community which shocked Argentine public opinion.
Infancy poverty in Argentina includes 40% of all children in urban areas, while 9.5% are considered to be living in indigent conditions, according to the latest Social Debt Barometer, from the Argentina Catholic University, UCA.