- Title: ARGENTINA: Poor at risk as inflation weakens safety net
- Date: 28th February 2014
- Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAITING TO GO INTO SOUP KITCHEN "LOS PILETONES" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RECEIVING FOOD VARIOUS OF ALEJANDRO MONZON APPROACHING COUNTER TO RECEIVE FOOD (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ALEJANDRO MONZON, SAYING: "I started coming not long ago. It doesn't make such a big difference and at least it balances things out to makemeet. As I said it helps me to pay taxes (light, gas and water bills). Now that the school period is about to start, to be able to buy school supplies, uniforms for the children. (Reporter asks: Coming here helps?) Yes, it helps a little bit otherwise I'm unable to makemeet." VARIOUS OF MONZON WITH FAMILY (WIFE AND SIX KIDS) SITTING AT TABLE IN THEIR HOME, DRINKING MATE (BEVERAGE) VARIOUS OF ADULTS AND CHILDREN EATING IN SOUP KITCHEN VARIOUS OF ADULTS AND CHILDREN RECEIVING DESSERT UPON LEAVING SOUP KITCHEN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SOUP KITCHEN WORKER, BEATRIZ ANTUNEZ, SAYING: "People work but there are people who earn per fortnight and are paid $1800 to $2000 pesos ($225 and $250 dollars) and have to buy shoes, clothes, school supplies and they can't afford to do so. The soup kitchen helps them with food so that they are able to buy things for their children. Everything is truly very expensive now. Two months ago we used to cook milanesa (breaded cutlet dish). Now, we have stopped cooking it because we can't afford it." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN STREET SURROUNDED BY RAMSHACKLE BRICK HOMES THREE STORIES TALL MEMBERS OF SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS GATHERED TO PROTEST HIKE IN PAYMENT OF SOCIAL SUBSIDIES WOMAN AND TODDLER VARIOUS OF TWO MEN AND YOUNG MAN EATING IN STREET HOMELESS WOMAN BEGGING FOR MONEY ON THE STREET TRAFFIC / MAN WITH CART FULL OF CARDBOARD LOOKING FOR OBJECTS HE CAN SELL ON THE STREET VARIOUS OF MEN CLEANING CAR WINDSHIELDS AT TRAFFIC LIGHTS VARIOUS OF DANIEL ARROYO, A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES AND FORMER VICE MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER KIRCHNER, WORKING ON COMPUTER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DANIEL ARROYO, A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES AND FORMER VICE MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER KIRCHNER, SAYING: "Clearly Argentina with all its (bad) situations is better than it was 10 years ago but things have become more complicated. The trend has changed (of poverty) and the problem is how we reverse it again to change the tendency which requires private economic activity, generate investments and to define which productive sectors will generate employment in the next few years." VARIOUS OF PRESIDENT CRISTINA FERNANDEZ NEXT TO FORMER PRESIDENT AND HUSBAND NESTOR KIRCHNER AND UNASUR LEADERS FERNANDEZ GREETING SUPPORTERS IN FRONT OF NATIONAL CONGRESS LIMA, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE, ARGENTINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) WORKERS DURING CHANGE OF SHIFT BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION SITE WORKERS AT CAR ASSEMBLY PLANT VARIOUS OF THE INDEC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS VARIOUS OF ARGENTINA'S ECONOMY MINISTER, AXEL KICILLOF AND INDEC AUTHORITIES ARRIVING TO ANNOUNCE JANUARY 2014 INFLATION RATE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DANIEL ARROYO, A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES AND FORMER VICE MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER KIRCHNER, SAYING: "I would say today we have roughly 25 percent of poverty, one in four people in Argentina don't have finished homes and lack basic services, 32 percent of informal labour, one in three people working, working precariously, no pay check, no social services (private health care) no retirement (do not make pension contributions) and a million and a half youngsters of 18 and 24 who neither study or work. That is where the most critical social problem lies for Argentina which was sharpened by inflation in recent times." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET VARIOUS OF CHILDREN EATING IN SOUP KITCHEN
- Embargoed: 15th March 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Argentina
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: People,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA1M8DWSXDTZRPRWSWE4DHEH28D
- Story Text: At a soup kitchen in the Villa Piletones slum in Buenos Aires, a line of adults and children, some with bowls in their hands, stretched outside and onto the dust-filled streets.
Inside, workers dished out bowls of meat stew and people sat and ate at long wooden tables.
Standing in line, Alejandro Monzon recounted how his fortunes have unravelled over the last year.
Food prices have soared, the 29-year-old maintenance worker complained, squeezing his meagre monthly budget and leaving him reliant on charity to keep his wife and six children fed.
A few months ago, Monzon reached his breaking point. As more of the family budget went to just putting food on the table, he sought help at the soup kitchen.
"I started coming not long ago. It doesn't make such a big difference and at least it balances things out to make ends meet. As I said it helps me to pay taxes (light, gas and water bills). Now that the school period is about to start, to be able to buy school supplies, uniforms for the children. (Reporter asks: Coming here helps?) Yes, it helps a little bit otherwise I'm unable to make ends meet," Monzon said.
He is not alone. A sharp currency devaluation in Argentina last month has worsened one of the world's highest inflation rates, threatening to unravel a generous social safety net at the heart of President Cristina Fernandez's economic policies.
One in four Argentine families now rely on state welfare programs ranging from payouts for the unemployed to scholarships for poor high school students, as social spending boomed along with the economy over much of the past decade.
Monzon was one of millions of Argentines who benefited. He moved into a bigger government-built apartment and found a job at a supermarket that helped him buy a car and even a flat-screen TV.
But climbing consumer prices in recent years have overtaken his monthly salary of 4,000 pesos ($507 at the official exchange rate, or about $350 at the black market rate) - a complaint echoing throughout Argentina.
Monzon watched the value of his pay check tumble further last month when the Argentine peso devalued sharply, triggering a spike in prices of food and other goods.
Most economists say inflation is running at more than 25 percent a year, compared with government data that has put annual inflation at just over 10 percent.
As that gap has grown, so has the sense among many struggling Argentines that government-set stipends cannot cover what they used to.
Beatriz Antunez, who helps run Los Piletones, said she saw the crowds lining up for a meal grow late last year.
"People work but there are people who earn per fortnight and are paid $1800 to $2000 pesos ($225 and $250 dollars) and have to buy shoes, clothes, school supplies and they can't afford to do so. The soup kitchen helps them with food so that they are able to buy things for their children. Everything is truly very expensive now. Two months ago we used to cook milanesa (breaded cutlet dish). Now, we have stopped cooking it because we can't afford it," she said.
Although there have been no large-scale demonstrations this year, some groups of poor Argentines staged a day of protests following the peso's plunge in January, demanding a 40 percent increase in cash payouts for the unemployed.
Keeping a lid on social tensions will be a priority for Fernandez for the rest of her second four-year term. Under the constitution, she is unable to seek a third term and will leave office in December 2015.
On the streets of Buenos Aires, the signs of economic strains are unmistakable. Some of the famous boulevards that earned the city a reputation as the "Paris of South America" are lined at night with homeless people.
In the shadow of the century-old railway station Retiro at the heart of the city, a slum known as Villa 31 has grown about 50 percent in four years, housing an estimated 40,000 people in ramshackle brick homes three stories tall.
In the early 20th century, Argentina ranked among the richest countries in the world, thanks to its booming beef and wheat exports.
But a succession of financial crises in recent decades battered its well-educated middle class. As much as half of the country fell into poverty during the economic collapse that followed a record 2002 sovereign debt default.
"Clearly Argentina with all its (bad) situations is better than it was 10 years ago but things have become more complicated. The trend has changed (of poverty) and the problem is how we reverse it again to change the tendency which requires private economic activity, generate investments and to define which productive sectors will generate employment in the next few years," said Daniel Arroyo, a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and former vice minister of social development under Kirchner.
Kirchner took office in 2003 and four years later stepped aside for Fernandez to run.
Formal job growth has withered in recent years as economic growth slowed and private investment dried up, scared off in many cases by Fernandez's heavy-handed approach to the private sector, economists say.
At the same time, the cost of the government's social and subsidy programs have grown to 15 percent of gross domestic product from 10 percent a decade ago, according to economists at the Universidad Catolica de Argentina.
As the government has been lowballing inflation since 2007, however, official poverty statistics are suspect.
"I would say today we have roughly 25 percent of poverty, one in four people in Argentina don't have finished homes and lack basic services, 32 percent of informal labour, one in three people working, working precariously, no pay check, no social services (private health care) no retirement (do not make pension contributions) and a million and a half youngsters of 18 and 24 who neither study or work. That is where the most critical social problem lies for Argentina which was sharpened by inflation in recent times," added Arroyo.
Fernandez has made repeated announcements this year of new or expanded social spending programs. Most recently, she tripled a stipend for families to buy school supplies, just as the academic year is starting. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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