INDEC today announces the poverty rate for the first semester

An alarming fact will sneak into the campaign just 20 days before the elections, when this afternoon the INDEC will release the poverty and indigence figures for the first semester of 2023.Estimates from the Torcuato Di Tella University warns that it would exceed 40%, almost four points above the 36.5% of the first semester of 2022. That is, there would be 1.8 million more poor people than a year ago. If these forecasts are confirmed, the upward trend that began towards the middle of last year would be accentuated. The latest data for 2022 placed poverty at 39.2%. The figure is alarming because it does not contemplate the impact of the 22% devaluation of last August. It is one of the sensitive data that INDEC will release before the presidential debate next Sunday and the general elections on October 22. In a few weeks, the institute directed by Marco Lavagna will also release inflation in September, which would return to around double digits. The publication of the poverty and indigence indices resumed in 2016, after the previous authorities decided to suspend it. Since then, the series that started at 30% experienced some declines but with strong rebounds. For example, in the second half of 2017 it had stood at 25.7%, but since that point, it rose to 35.5% with which the government delivered by former President Mauricio Macri. Source: INDEC. Then, during the presidency of Alberto Fernández, the outbreak of the pandemic took the index to 42%. And although it had fallen to levels almost identical to those of the end of 2019, INDEC could today place poverty again above the 40% threshold.

Original source in Spanish