The high inflation It seriously affects the situation of Argentines, whose purchasing power is decreasing year after year due to constant price increases.
Shortly after consulting firm Focus Market learned about the new INDEC inflation index, they produced a report showing it How the purchasing power of Argentinian families in dollars has fallen over the past decade.
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For the study, a family of four (two adults and two minors) was taken as a reference, in which two receive equal median incomes from the 3 main deciles of income distribution in our country, “which are representative of the characteristics of our population”. are considered poor.
From 2013 to 2023, the income of the bottom class, which accounts for 57% of Argentina’s population, increased from US$1,096 to US$209 in ten years. This represented a drop of 81%.
For his part The middle decile went from earning $1,743 in 2013 to $358 in 2023, a difference of also 81%. As for that In the top decile, they rose from $2,932 to $74475% less in a decade.
The loss of purchasing power also became clear in the comparison current situation with 2022. As a result, the bottom decile fell from $272 to $209; the middle decile, from $439 to $358; and the highest decile from $863 to $744.
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“The drop in real income over these 10 years corresponds to the deterioration in the living conditions of Argentine families over the same period warned Damián Di Pace, director of Focus Market.
With this in mind, they analyzed three scenarios of typical families with different income levels, showing that those who have a job and an income can also be considered poor.
If a family of four with a median income of $150,218 is considered, it manages to cover INDEC’s basic food basket ($111,642), but not the entire basic food basket ($248,962). They are below the poverty line.
On the other hand, A typical $257,638 family, which equates to the 9th decile (the richest 20% in the country), if they meet basic needs, i.e. above the poverty line. However, they would be missing 39% to cover the entire base basket plus rent ($425,206) and 49% to cover vehicle maintenance costs ($505,206).
“Politics in recent decades have adopted the concept of a stationary economy, assuming that people’s incomes and wealth do not fluctuate, as if the social and economic system were not fully functioning and were in a permanent state of flux. In the Argentine case, this change has been negative, people’s income has deteriorated and paralyzed the population’s progress based on wealth creation,” Di Pace explained.
