The economic crisis is beginning to take on dramatic overtones. According to a report from the Department of Statistics and Trends of the Center of Storekeepers and Retailers of the Province of Córdoba, in April 2024, “due to lack of resources, 45% of the families surveyed (in Córdoba) declared that one or more members members of their household stopped having breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner.”
The work is carried out through 2,500 personal and individual surveys of Heads of Households throughout the territory of the Province of Córdoba. The frequency of the report is monthly.
The study also established that “57.6% of Households could not access all of the foods that make up the Basic Food Basket (CBA) during April 2024.”
While in those households that were able to fully access the CBA (42.4%), only 24.4% were able to do so with their own resources; while the remaining 75.6% were assisted with some type of state aid (mostly with AUH / Alimentar Card) to achieve that goal.
I also recorded that “9% of the Families surveyed stated that during April 2024, due to lack of resources, some member of their Household only ate once a day or stopped eating for an entire day” and another “15% of the families , expressed that they had to do something they would have preferred not to do to get food, such as asking for money or asking for food.”
18% of Heads of Households surveyed reported that due to lack of resources, at some point during the month, “their family was left without food.” Meanwhile, 26% of the families surveyed indicated that “some of their members felt hungry, but did not eat food.”
The magnitude of the crisis was also expressed in other data: 89.2% of households “had to finance food during April 2024.” The work discriminates that 48.3% did it “on trust”; 33.1% using Credit Cards; and 7.8% borrowing money.
DEBT IN DEFAULT
The survey by the Department of Statistics and Trends of the Center of Storekeepers and Retailers of the Province of Córdoba also records the defaulted debt of the families. The detail is as follows:
– Credit Cards: 38.7%.
-Fees, Taxes and Services: 37.4%.
-Prepaid Health: 14.1%.
-Credits and Loans: 5.3%
INFLATION, POVERTY AND INDIGENCE
The study establishes that inflation in April 2024 was 9.3%, reaching a single-digit percentage again after several months. Since Javier Milei’s government took office, the entity registered 30.4% in December 2023; 23.7% in January 2024; 14.8% in February 2024; and 10.4% in March 2024. The Warehouse Center points out that these values “consolidate a disinflation process.”
He explains that “among the main causes of such a slowdown, we highlight the behavior of the prices of the products that make up the Basic Food Basket, which during the month of April suffered, on average, an increase of 5.1%, denoting a leveling off of this highly weighted item for the Consumer Price Index (CPI).”
The work indicates that interannual inflation (last 12 months) amounts to 351%, that accumulated during the first quarter reaches 71.4%; and that projected for the entire year would reach 211%.
The Total Basic Basket (CBT, which includes food and services) for a family of four people and determines the poverty line, reached an amount of $953,045. Meanwhile, the indigence line for that same type of family stood at $552,486.
SALES DROP
Volume sales in local businesses, in the “Food” category (butcher shops, grocery stores, poultry shops, delicatessens, greengrocers, etc.) fell 30% in volume (same percentage as March 2024), compared to the same period of the previous year (on the same number of clients) “which shows, together with the social indicators analyzed, the collapse in the consumption of basic foods as a consequence of the clear deterioration of the purchasing power of families.”
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