The family basket of poverty has already reached $ 100,000, without rent

With a 4.2% increase in April, in the first 5 months of this year the prices of staple foods – such as bread, common ground beef, noodles, dairy products and vegetables – increased by 35.6% and the family basket basic poverty, without rent, in May rose to $ 99,653, nearly $ 100,000.

The measurement comes from the Buenos Aires City Statistical and Census Directorate, which reported that a family of four (married couple and 2 children) needed more than $ 54,380 in May to avoid being destitute when it was $ 40,101 in December 2021 and from $ 52,169 in April. And in May 2021, a year ago, it was $ 33,617. With respect to that value, it represents the jump to the basket an increase of 61.7%.

The main increases last month for staple foods were Meat and derivatives (7.9%), Bread and cereals (5.4%) e Milk, dairy products and eggs (5.3%). In the opposite direction, decreases were recorded for vegetables, tubers and legumes (-3.5%).

Meanwhile, in order not to be poor, a typical family (married couple and 2 minor children) had to have an income of over $ 99,653, up from $ 76,177 in December last year, which represents a 30.8% increase in just 5 months.

The total basic or “poverty” basket of Buenos Aires, in addition to food, includes other items, but not the rent of the house.

Thus the basic Buenos Aires basket for a family renting a modest house would exceed $ 140,000, a value that most of the workers, even with the contributions to the Social Security, are unable to cover.

Therefore, due to its magnitude and incidence, the increase in the prices of food, other goods and services affects the destitute and the poor with greater force.

In order not to be poor but to be considered a vulnerable or fragile middle-sector household, income would have to be between $ 99,653 and $ 153,816 and to be middle-class have incomes that exceed that $ 153,816, not including rent, if any.

The Buenos Aires department reported that inflation was 5.5% in May.

Meanwhile, the government has authorized increases of between 2.9 and 6.4% in care prices related to different cuts of meat.