According to the national statistics office, Indec, the percentage of the population living in poverty increased to 52.9% in the first half of this year from 41.7% in the second half of 2023.
In an effort to lower inflation and cut back on government spending, Milei has fired thousands of state personnel and cut subsidies for energy, fuel, and transportation since taking office in December.
At almost 230%, Argentina’s annual inflation rate in August continued to rank among the highest globally.
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But Milei has been successful in reining down the government’s excessive spending, which is largely to blame for the nation’s financial problems. Argentina had massive budget deficits for years, but since February, there have been monthly fiscal surpluses.
Manuel Adorni, a spokesman for the government, blamed the current problems on earlier left-leaning Peronist governments during a news conference.
“A consequence of the populism that has subjected Argentina to so many years of misfortune and devastation,” he said of the rise in poverty.
“The government inherited a disastrous situation, the worst inheritance that a government has received in a democracy, perhaps one of the worst that a government has received in history,” he stated.
Argentina’s poverty rate was rising even before the Milei administration came to power. As late as 2017, there were just around.
