How much did a family need to not be poor?

In March, a typical family needed to raise income of $773,385.10 to overcome the poverty line and $358,048.65 to avoid falling into destitution, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).

The Total Basic Basket (CBT) – which marks the poverty line and is made up of food and a series of basic services – rose 11.9% in March to total $773,385 for a couple and two school-age children.

Thus In the first three months of the year the cost of CBT increased by 56% and in one year by 304%..

These variations allow us to infer a strong increase in poverty at the beginning of Javier Milei’s presidencya product of the effects of the devaluation and the inflationary explosion that occurred since the change of Government.

For the current administration, this process was inevitable due to how it received the country from the hands of Alberto Fernández.

At the end of the second semester, Indec reported that poverty affected four out of every 10 Argentines.

The value of the CBT also shows that in Argentina the majority of workers fell into poverty, given that as of February the Taxable Remuneration of Stable Workers (RIPTE) prepared by the Ministry of Labor was $619,000.

Despite this situation, the Government is reluctant to validate equal wage increases above inflation, which would serve to recover purchasing power and help a sector of the population escape poverty.

Policy

Index Inflation in March 2024 was 11% driven by education, rates and prepaid

Meanwhile, the Total Basic Basket (CBT) – with which poverty is measured and only covers essential foods – showed an increase of 10.9% in March. In the first quarter the CBT rose 48.7%, while in one year it increased 308%.

The difference of one point between the variation of the CBA and the CBT corresponds to the incidence of services, which is very low in the case of the basket that measures indigence.