Q24N (Prensa Latina) In the last year, poverty surged to 32.9 % in Argentina, affecting 1.5 million more people, according to a report from the Catholic University”s Social Debt Observatory.
‘From 2016 the impact of devaluation, anti-inflationary measures, the adverse international context and the lag of private and public investment would have generated a critical scenario, even more recessive and adverse in terms of employment and purchasing power for large social sectors,’ the Observatory pointed out.
According to the report poverty rates rose from 29% at the end of 2015 to 32.9% in the third quarter of 2016, which means 1.5 million new poor people, about 13 million below the poverty line, the highest levels since 2010.
Indigence increased from 5.3% to 6.9%, reaching 2.7 million Argentines, according to the study, which stated that to be above that scale a family must receive more than 2,200 pesos a month (some 150 dollars).
The biggest impact of the increase in poverty was the result of the inflationary shock, Agustín Salvia, head of the Observatory, told the press.
‘Persistent inequality and structural poverty are the result of a concentrated and unbalanced economic-productive model with effects of exclusion and inequality at the socio-labor level,’ he added.
After hearing these results, the Government issued today a decree in the Official Gazette, which extends the social emergency until December 31, 2019.
