- (AFP) - Half of Argentina's 36 million citizens now live
in poverty, after nearly four years of recession took a turn for the worse
last month, according to officials.Director of Argentina's statistics service
INDEC, Juan Carlos Del Bello, said the ratio of people now classed officially
as poor is now at 18 million.In just two months, the ranks of the poor
have swollen by four million due to inflation, higher unemployment and
frozen salaries, Del Bello said in a television interview.
-
- The increase in poverty goes hand in hand with a deep
economic recession, now in its 47th consecutive month. However, the situation
became more critical when the liberal orthodox economic plan of former
president Fernando de la Rua collapsed last December, he said.
-
- De la Rua resigned late last year in the midst of riots
after his government sought to avoid default via a severe economic hardship
package, freezing bank accounts to try and stop capital flight from the
country. The nation, under the government of President Eduardo Duhalde,
formally defaulted on its 141 billion dollar public debt on January 3,
and went on to devalue the currency from nine years of equal pegging to
the dollar, setting off a rise in prices.
-
- "The dramatic increase in the number of poor people
is due to the value of the basic shopping basket increasing by 35.2 percent
since last December. Many of the new poor became so during April, because
food prices last month rose by 17.7 percent," Del Bello said.Of the
lowest income families, food purchases account for 46 percent of spending.
The hike in the price of basic food like flour, cooking oil and meat has
led to a "dramatic" growth in poverty and abject poverty, he
said.
|
