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Drop in poverty under Chainsaw President in Argentina, but many say life is harder
AP April 1, 2025
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s poverty rate dropped to 38.1% in libertarian President Javier Milei ‘s first year in office, the nation’s official statistics agency reported on Monday, a closely watched measure reflecting the government’s progress wrestling down what had been among the world’s highest inflation rates.
The decline in poverty for the second half of 2024 — from July to December — marks an improvement from the 41.7% that Milei’s left-wing populist predecessors delivered for the second half of 2023. Milei swept to office late that year with a mandate to reverse the country’s economic decline brought about by years of reckless borrowing. ...
But economists warn that the figure fails to capture the reality of ordinary people struggling to cope with the most radical austerity program in Argentina’s recent history. Milei’s blizzard of brutal cuts have hit everything from soup kitchens and bus fares to apartment rent and healthcare, eroding people’s purchasing power.
“There is a big gap between what the statistics say and what you feel on the streets,” said Tomás Raffo, an economist at Argentina’s largest public sector workers union CTA. “We suffered a very strong blow where a lot more people went into poverty and now some of them have come out. ... But those who were poor before all this have gotten even poorer.” ...
A growing number of experts have voiced concern that, while perfectly orthodox, INDEC’s inflation measure has become misleading partly because its consumer price index is based on a basket of basic goods from 2004. The government applies the inflation numbers to calculate the poverty rate. ...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s poverty rate dropped to 38.1% in libertarian President Javier Milei ‘s first year in office, the nation’s official statistics agency reported on Monday, a closely watched measure reflecting the government’s progress wrestling down what had been among the world’s highest inflation rates.
The decline in poverty for the second half of 2024 — from July to December — marks an improvement from the 41.7% that Milei’s left-wing populist predecessors delivered for the second half of 2023. Milei swept to office late that year with a mandate to reverse the country’s economic decline brought about by years of reckless borrowing. ...
But economists warn that the figure fails to capture the reality of ordinary people struggling to cope with the most radical austerity program in Argentina’s recent history. Milei’s blizzard of brutal cuts have hit everything from soup kitchens and bus fares to apartment rent and healthcare, eroding people’s purchasing power.
“There is a big gap between what the statistics say and what you feel on the streets,” said Tomás Raffo, an economist at Argentina’s largest public sector workers union CTA. “We suffered a very strong blow where a lot more people went into poverty and now some of them have come out. ... But those who were poor before all this have gotten even poorer.” ...
A growing number of experts have voiced concern that, while perfectly orthodox, INDEC’s inflation measure has become misleading partly because its consumer price index is based on a basket of basic goods from 2004. The government applies the inflation numbers to calculate the poverty rate. ...
Elon Musk got his "chainsaw for bureaucracy" as a gift from Argentina's President Javier Milei, who famously wielded the power tool during his successful run for Argentina's presidency - a symbol of the deep cuts he has made to the country's state spending.
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