In March of last year, the line of income separating a typical middle-class family from poverty was $90,467 in the city of Buenos Aires. A year later, that family needed to earn $191,240.96 to still be considered middle classalthough according to Buenos Aires statistics, more than the middle class, corresponds to that income level “poor not vulnerable”. This income corresponds to a family that owns its own home.
Meanwhile, a person living alone (25-year-old male) must have a minimum income of $65,045 in order to enter the “non-poor” tier, as long as he owns it. And a married couple with no children is expected to earn $107,819 if they live in their own home or $128,085 if they rent, according to city statistics.
When a typical household earns more than $235,140.45, it moves to the “fragile middle sector” level, i.e. it is not yet fully in the middle middle class. You get there when the house has income between $293,925.58 and $940,561.83″.
In February, you needed to earn between $269,055.56 and $860,977.79 between both parents to be in this group. This typical family is made up of a 35-year-old married couple with two children aged 6 and 9.
Above $940,561.83, the family is already considered to be of the “affluent class”. To belong to the wealthiest segment of the City, the members of this small group must have increased their income by 9.2% compared to February. If they haven’t, they will have “dropped” into the middle class.
The speed of the price increases of basic foodstuffs is the most relevant characteristic of the current inflation, rather than the cancellation of the bonuses and/or income reinforcements that the Government grants from time to time to vulnerable sectors. and that is why it is needed to a new increase in destitution and poverty in early 2023, above the high values of 2022.
Due to the skyrocketing price of meat, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, the prices of basic foods increased by 9.83% in March against an average inflation of 7.1% in the city of Buenos Aires.
The line of poverty for a typical family exceeded $100,000: it reached $107,836. Thus, in the first 3 months of this year alone, the basket of basic poverty in Buenos Aires -equivalent to the inflation of the poorest sectors- increased by 29.3%.
Meanwhile, after rising 6.78% in January, 7.19% in February, the basket of poverty increased by 9.23% in March with the cost rising from $175,080 in February to $191,241, rent excluded, according to data from the Directorate of Statistics and Censuses of the City of Buenos Aires.
If you add a modest rent, in order not to be poor, a typical family (married couple and 2 minor children) needed more than $260,000.
Source: Clarin
