In just 3 months, due to the devaluation and the jump in the value of the basic basket,
3.6 million new poor people were added
, mainly from the
professional and salaried middle class.
Poverty rose from 38.5% in the third quarter of last year
to 46.3%
in the fourth quarter of 2023.
An increase of 7.8 points.
The calculation is made by
Martín Rozada
, director of the Master's Degree in Econometrics at the
Di Tella University
, who added that
for January the projection would be showing 46.8% poor
.
It is equivalent to 21.8 million poor people if that rate is projected to the entire country, including the rural population.
Inflation in January was 20.6%, but in the poorest regions or provinces the average increase in prices was higher.
For example, in Tucumán inflation was 24.1% according to the Statistics Directorate of that Province.
In December, it had returned 24.5%.
With these values, poverty in the second half of 2023, which stood at 42.7%, would exceed the 40.2% that was registered in the second half of 2023 and the 39.2% in the second half of 2022.
INDEC data show that the poverty basket increased by 72.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, with a peak of 27% in December, after the devaluation of the peso.
Throughout 2023,
the increase in the poverty line was 225.1% versus an average inflation of 211.4%.
In January, the
poverty basket
for an adult was $193,146 and for
a typical family it was $596,823
, without considering rent.
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2023, formal and informal salaries on average increased 28.7% and 152.7% throughout last year, in both cases
well below average inflation
and the increase in the line of poverty.
In 2023, with the inflationary jump in December, retirees and pensioners had a loss of between 14.2% - in the case of those who received the bonus for minimum salaries - and 32.3% for medium salaries and more high.
And in January and February 2024 they received the same as in December, with inflation in those 2 months of 45%.
It is estimated that
child poverty
(under 14 years of age), which was 54.8% in the third quarter,
would have exceeded 60% in the last three months of last year.
The INDEC does not disseminate the quarterly figures of indigence and poverty due to the alteration caused in the measurement by the collection of the half bonus, in June and December.
That is why it publishes these figures every six months, taking into account the January-June and July-December periods.
The Incidence of poverty and indigence for the second half of 2023 will be released
on March 27.
However, through the dissemination of microdata from the Permanent Household Survey and Income Distribution it is possible to calculate a set of social indicators with the precaution of comparing homogeneous quarters.
With this clarification, the specialists who manage these INDEC programs can calculate these key indicators.
NE