Despite efforts by President Javier Milei to turn the country’s economic fortunes around the poverty rate in Argentina is increasing with over half of all Argentinians living in poverty in 2024. This is according to the country’s official statistical agency.
It said that in the first half of the year 52.9% of Argentinians lived in poverty, up from the figure of 41.7% recorded in the second half of 2023.
Milei has cut a number of government subsidies on transport and fuel and fired a large number of government employees, which has helped the Argentinian government record surpluses this year for the first time in years. However, inflation remains stubbornly high, recorded at 230% in August.
Milei’s government also devalued the local currency, the peso, by 50%.
However, a spokesman for the government said it was dealing with issues it had inherited from previous left-wing administrations.
Said Manuel Adorni: “The government inherited a disastrous situation, the worst inheritance that a government has received in a democracy, perhaps one of the worst that a government has received in history.”