Miguel Afonso Caetano"The key to understanding this lies in the composition of current growth, based on sectors that generate relatively few jobs, such as hydrocarbons, mining, and financial intermediation. Sectors with a high concentration of employment, such as construction, manufacturing, and commerce, are experiencing a very difficult time or — in some cases — a marked year-on-year decline.
Similarly, while household incomes have shown some improvement on average, those of public employees and retirees remain far below the levels of the past decade. Furthermore, their income is stretched further because of the increased burden on household budgets from expenses such as transportation, education, and healthcare — all of which have been hit hard by Milei’s cuts to subsidies and the public system. “In recent times, poverty metrics have improved more than economic stress: some households have higher incomes, but not necessarily greater spending power or less financial strain,” concludes a report by the Catholic University of Argentina based on a subjective question: Does your current income allow you to live the way you are accustomed to living?
The same dissonance can be seen in consumption, which has ceased to move as a homogeneous bloc. According to the consulting firm MAP Latam, the observable improvement in the statistics is driven by wealthier sectors that spend on outbound tourism, cars, and durable or imported goods, while consumption is falling in more basic areas such as food in supermarkets. Milk purchases, for example, are declining, according to the Argentine Dairy Chain Observatory (OCLA)."
Muir
Cafè Indipendèntzia
Cody Wallace
Benoit des Ligneris
Egberto Willies
Pepperberry
Ray Berger