A kind family needs now 191,228 pesos for not being considered poor, according to the data that INDEC published this Thursday on the basic and total food basket. This is an 8% increase over the month of February. In addition, 87,719 pesos are needed to exceed the poverty line.
The data adds to the high inflation figure that was revealed in recent days: 7.7% for March and a year-over-year accumulated 104.3%.
It is clear that the acceleration of food inflation, which reached 9.3% in the third month of the year, had an effect on the total basic basket (CBT) and the basic food basket (CBA), which set the poverty and indigence, respectively.
A typical family – made up of a 35-year-old man, a 31-year-old woman, a 6-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter – needed 191,228 pesos to avoid falling into poverty. In addition to the 8% increase over March, this advance implies a interim change of 113.2%.
THE basic food basket Marcia for that same family group, meanwhile, stood at 87,719 pesos, 9% more than the previous month and an inter-year change of 210.1%. Mark the row under which the homeless person is.
The changes in CBA and CBT accumulate increases of 30.6% and 25.4% respectively in the first quarter of the year
The basic food basket is determined taking into account the normative need for kilocalories and essential proteins for an adult male aged between 30 and 60, of moderate activity, to cover these needs for one month.
The foods and quantities are selected on the basis of the consumption habits of the population on the basis of the information provided by the National Survey on Household Expenditure.
The products that make up this basket are: bread, crackers, rice, wheat flour, noodles, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugar, pulses, meat, milk and eggs, among others.
According to the report released this Tuesday, the CBA for an equivalent adult it was 28,388 pesos. A three-member family needed 69,835 pesos and a five-member family needed 92,261 pesos.
Meanwhile, to determine the total basic basket (CBT), the basic food basket is expanded to include non-food goods and services in the measurement, including the cost of transportation, electricity and gas, among others.
In March the a an equivalent adult needed 61,886 pesos not to be poorwhile the sum for a family of three was 152,240 pesos and that for a family of five was 201,130 pesos.
In the last twelve months the most important leap recorded in the food basket was in August last year, when the indicator recorded a 9.5% increase, while the overall basic basket rose 9% on that occasion.
In the City, in order not to be poor, a family must earn $191,240.96
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 had to earn $191,240.96 to continue to be considered middle class, even though according to Buenos Aires statistics, more than the middle class that income level corresponds to “vulnerable not poor”. 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 down to the “fragile middle sector” level, i.e. it is not yet fully in the middle middle class. It’s there when the household has an 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 didn’t, they would have “dropped” into the middle class.
Meanwhile, the line of poverty for a typical family in the City has crossed $100,000: it reached $107,836. Thus, in the first 3 months of this year alone, the basic basket of poverty in Buenos Aires – equivalent to the inflation of the poorest sectors – rose by 29.3%.
For its part, after rising by 6.78% in January, by 7.19% in February, the basket of poverty increased by 9.23% in March with a cost that increased from $175,080 in February to $191,241 , without rent included, according to data from the Statistics and Censuses Directorate 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
