President Milei boosted as Argentina’s poverty rate plunges

However, after Milei implemented reforms such as austerity, devaluing the peso, and cutting federal expenditure, the poverty rate dropped to 38.1 percent in the latter half of the year, showing a reduction of 14.8 percent.

“These figures reflect the failure of past policies, which caused many Argentines to live in precarious conditions,” stated Prime Minister Javier Milei’s office in response to the INDEC report.

According to Milei, the path to reducing poverty in the long term is through economic freedom and fiscal responsibility.

The decline in poverty is seen as a positive development for Milei as he prepares for the upcoming midterm elections this year.

Although his free-market policies attracted investors, it took time for the broader effects to be felt in the economy, leading to protests due to a cost-of-living crisis in Argentina.

The significant drop in poverty was aided by a drastic decrease in inflation, from nearly 300 percent in May of the previous year to under 70 percent currently.

In a social media post, Milei celebrated the news, stating that the policies promoted by the Ministry of Human Capital lifted more than 8 million people out of poverty.

Despite the reduction, around 11.3 million Argentines out of a total population of 47 million still live in poverty, with 2.5 million considered to be in “severe poverty.”

While some have expressed feeling economic pain despite the declining poverty rate, experts caution that income levels for workers, retirees, and pensioners are still lower than they were in late 2023.

“There is a big gap between what the statistics say and what you feel on the streets,” said economist Tomás Raffo.

“We suffered a very strong blow where a lot more people went into poverty, and now some of them have come out. … But those who were poor before all this have gotten even poorer.”