Daniel Vázquez does not feel any relief in his pocket due to the drop in inflation in Argentina, especially because his salary as a university professor is stagnant, in the midst of an economic crisis that left 52.9% of the population in poverty.
“What you see is that there is no price reference. This is tremendous because you lose track of what is expensive and what is cheap and, regardless of what the indices say, things continue to increase,” said Vázquez in a neighborhood fair in Buenos Aires, while shopping.
“There doesn’t seem to be much explanation as to why, but things continue to increase and the only thing that doesn’t increase are salaries, so the gap is very, very big,” he added.
According to the median of a Reuters survey, the Consumer Price Index that will be released on Thursday afternoon would have recorded an upward variation of 3.5% in September, which would show its best record since the end of 2021.
For Iván Cortesi, a 30-year-old programmer, food prices did not increase as much in September as in previous months, but there was a strong increase in services.
“This last month there was a fairly significant increase in everything related to services. Although I think the largest increases were in recent months, it is still considerable. As for food and all that out there I see it quite similar,” he said when asked about the impact of an inflation of 236% year-on-year.
The purchasing power of salaries collapsed when the ultra-liberal president Javier Milei devalued the local currency when he took office in December, to which he added a strong adjustment in public spending that especially affected teachers, doctors, pensioners and state and informal workers.
The president has managed to lower inflation in recent months, one of his main objectives along with fiscal balance, which involved salary cuts, layoffs and a reduction in subsidies to public services and transportation.
The measures deepened a recession and hit the pockets of Argentines, many of whom have had to tighten their belts to make ends meet.
“Luckily I have the help of my family, so you live within everything, but you try to adjust what you can,” said Federico Magistres, 23 years old.
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