In In the third quarter of last year, 37.7% of the population lived below the poverty line. Therefore, despite the increase in activity and the increase in employment after the easing of restrictions due to the pandemic, it represents a slight decrease compared to the same period in 2020 when it reached 38.8% and 38.2% in 2021. And it exceeds 33.1% in the same quarter of 2019, according to the processing of microdata from the EPH (Permanent Household Survey) released by INDEC.
The same happens with the homeless: in one year it fell from 8.3% to 7.8% but exceeds the 7.6% of the third quarter of 2019.
If these percentages are extended to the entire population (46 million), including the rural population, they amount to 17,300,000 poor people, of which 3,600,000 would be indigent.
By age, with 51.7% exceed child poverty of children under 14 compared to 52.1% in Q3 2021while homeless children fell from 13% to 11.8%.
In the suburbs, on the other hand, poverty remained at 43.9%.
The decline in poverty occurred in all age groups, except for that between 30 and 64 years, which decreased from 33.2% to 34.1%.
Between formal wage poverty remained at 14.5%, unchanged from 2020 and 2021. While between informal ones (without a retirement discount) went from 45 to 45.5%.
In this way, despite the higher level of employment and the fall in unemployment, these indicators are the consequence of the fact that there has been no recovery in real wages, which have accumulated 5 years of decline.
In 2022, wages recorded a 90.4% increase against 94.8% inflation, with the largest decline among informal wage earners, according to INDEC data. Compared to 2017, wages accumulate a 23.4% loss, with a greater decline in informal workers who experience higher levels of both destitution and poverty.
Pensions and pensions also experienced a decline in purchasing power from mid-2017 onwards, partially offset from 2020 onwards with bonuses for those on lower wages.
INDEC does not disseminate quarterly data on indigence and poverty due to the alteration caused in the measurement by the collection of the Christmas half bonus, in the months of June and December. For this reason, the agency publishes data on indigence and poverty every six months, taking into account the months January-June and July-December.
However, through the dissemination of microdata it is possible to calculate a set of social indicators with the precaution of comparing homogeneous quarters.
With this clarification, the specialists who manage this INDEC program can calculate these key indicators.
These calculations show that the drop in poverty in one year from 38.2% to 37.7% is not significant, especially taking into account the rebound in activity that occurred in 2021 and 2022, plus social aid. But skyrocketing inflation has deteriorated the income of the population and has hit the lowest income sectors the hardest due to the sharp increase in basic foods that determine the line of destitution and poverty.
In 2022, the basket of destitution increased by 103.8% and the basket of poverty by 100.3% against inflation by 94.8%.
Source: Clarin
