Inflation in Argentina is so high that more and more families are suffering hunger
In the whole world the inflation is rampant, especially the inflation that has affected the food and especially the most basic foodstuffs. For example, in Latin America, countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Ecuador have inflation rates of between six and two points.
Also the data from Europe show how inflation has not only affected the countries under the yoke of imperialism, the working class of the imperialist countries itself is also suffering from this inflation, especially in the most basic foodstuffs.
And it is not only just the total percentage what must be analyzed, for example in Spain, although the inflation rate is 4.1%, one of the lowest, the real inflation only of the price of basic foodstuffs exceeds 12.9%. Although general inflation may give an idea of the rising cost of living, the price people are paying for their basic needs around the globe is even higher.
However, the situation in Argentina is completely out of control, being one of the country in the world with the highest inflation rate. Data from April 2023 show that Argentina suffers from 8.4% inflation, accumulating 32% annually. But the real rate in basic foods is 115%, which means that food costs more than twice as a year ago, only behind Lebanon with 352% food inflation.
Faced with this situation, there are increasing cases of families having difficulty for eating, and this especially affects single-parent families, who are mainly single mothers who work and have small children. A mother says in a newspaper “Sometimes I don’t eat so I can save a little bit of food for my daughter at night, or I eat rice or something else,” Data from 2020 show that 30% of mothers do not live with the father and therefore parenting falls mostly on them.
According to media reports, this is also affecting the elderly population, who have to choose between two essential basic needs: medicine or food. A retired woman says in the media: “The minimum wage is not even enough for the basics. We who have had the misfortune of losing our husbands are a little more relieved because we receive retirement and pension. It is not a business either, it would be better to have a husband”.
The poverty rate in Argentina closed in 2022 at 39.2%, which implies that 18.1 million Argentines suffer from poverty. In the case of children and teenagers up to 14 years of age, 54.2% suffer from a situation of poverty, that is, about 6 million children. This clashes with unemployment figures, which fall to 6.3%, meaning that more and more people who work are not paid enough to be able to support themselves. However, the leading companies in Argentina are international groups such as Toyota, Google, Natura, Quilmes, Santander or Nestlé, as well as the bureaucratic capitalists as Arcor, related to the food industry. Each of the companies has millionaire profits and are in the first positions of the companies with the highest profit. However, according to official data of the third term of 2022, only 44.2% of those who can work do so, unemployment was 7.1% in that period and the unregistered employment rate is 37.4%.
