Argentina: Poverty Increases to 32% and Extreme Poverty Reaches 7%

Argentina's statistics agency published a study on Thursday which shows that poverty affects 32 percent of the population with 6.7 percent living in extreme poverty. In one year, indigence increased from 4.8 percent to 6.7 percent.

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The indicators revealed a rise in poverty and extreme poverty compared to the first half of 2018.

According to the statistics state agency, 23.4 percent of the population is living below the poverty line in urban areas. 

The numbers, which does not include rural populations, indicate that there are about 14.3 million people living in conditions of poverty, almost three million more than those registered on the previous year.

A few months ago, the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) released a report which indicated that "multidimensional poverty" had increased from 26.6 percent to 31.3 percent between 2017 and 2018.

Since the beginning of the year, tens of thousands of demonstrators repeatedly took to the streets to protest high unemployment, high inflation, recession and the policies of the right-wing government of Mauricio Macri, including cuts to public utility subsidies.

The cuts fall under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to erase Argentina’s primary fiscal deficit by the end of this year.