Meet Argentina's 'stressed': the 'non-poor' who can't reach the end of the month under Milei
Today 06:58
The INDEC national statistics bureau does not consider them poor, but millions of Argentina can’t make it to the end of the month; New study by UCA’s poverty watchdog shines light on those living under “economic stress”
Agustina Bordigoni
Soledad is 43 and lives with her 16-year-old son. She’s a municipal employee, also working independently online with a personal enterprise. Combining these posts she earns a monthly income which, according to the INDEC national statistics bureau, is well above what a three-person family would need not to be poor. Yet she still has a hard time making it to the end of the month.
“I’m a single mother and the head of a household. Until last December we were three but my older son left home, leaving us two. I have a rent contract which increases annually and I felt the pressure of last year’s [rent] hike of over 200 percent in October. I still haven’t been able to adjust,” she explained to Perfil in an interview.
Since last October, rent represents half her total salary and she has problems paying her various credit cards and loans. Soledad isn’t the only one – according to a survey by Inquilinos Agrupados tenants organisation, 63.7 percent of households have debts of some kind and 91 percent have had to sacrifice various expense items to pay the rent.
Soledad’s situation fits into new research by the Catholic University of Argentina’s (UCA) Observatorio de la Deuda Social poverty watchdog. Its new study highlights those living in “economic stress” or “a perception as to the capacity of total household income to cover basic monthly consumption while sustaining consumer patterns and a capacity to save.” In other words, a household whose insufficient income is manifest.
More:
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/meet-argentinas-stressed-the-non-poor-who-cant-reach-the-end-of-the-month-under-milei.phtml