Until April, the basic food basket increased in Comodoro Rivadavia by 69.4% compared to the month of December, according to data recorded until last April by the Economics Observatory of the Faculty of Economic Sciences. The data places prices in the city above the inflation measured by the INDEC. How much wages did they lose?
A survey in which the Observatory of the University of Patagonia is working, to measure the evolution of prices in the first six months of Javier Milei’s government, provides concrete data on the food items that increased the most in this first part of the year, based on an advance payment of the work to which it accessed ADNSUR.
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According to this work, in December a family of 4 members in Comodoro spent a total of $252,641 to eat every day, while in April the same family needed $427,971 to purchase food in the month. If total expenses, such as housing, education and recreation, are included, the bill goes from $550,758 in December of last year to $915,858 last month.
From this it follows that The Basic Food Basket, which leaves households that do not meet the minimum income to reach that value in a situation of destitution, rose 69.4% between December and last April, while the Total Basic Basket, which includes other items of family expenses, in addition to food, did so in a proportion just below, at 66.3%. In the same period, the accumulated inflation according to the INDEC was one 65%.
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THE FOODS THAT INCREASED THE MOST
According to the report, among the products that increased their price the most in those 4 months are Sugar, coffee, tea, herbs and condiments, with 97.4%. While in December $3,025 was allocated for this type of consumption, in April it rose to $5,972, including the expenses of the family of 4 members.
The beverage category increased the most, with 100.4% and included soft drinks, soda, beer and wine. As in the previous case, they have a lower impact on monthly spending, in the order of 5%, since priority purchases, due to quantity and frequency, are allocated to other items.
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Fruits and vegetables, for example, accumulated 78.6%, with an impact on family spending of almost 22%. Meat and derivatives rose almost 64%, while almost 29 of every 100 pesos spent by the family are allocated to this type of food.
In Milk, derivatives and eggs, the accumulated increase was 64%, while Bread and cereals did so by 65.5%. Natural tomatoes, peas and legumes rose by 47.5%, while Oils and margarine rose by almost 21%.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WAGES
A complementary aspect of the report prepared by César Herrera and Alejandro Jones is the one linked to the evolution of salaries, which allows us to know the ranking of the highest incomes until December of last year.
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The item ‘Extraction of oil and natural gas’ represents, when measured against the evolution of prices, a total of 3.83 total basic baskets, occupying first place. At values at that time, it represented an average salary of 2.1 million pesos.
In second place is the ‘Electricity, gas and water’ branch, with 3.16 basic baskets (1.7 million pesos). And in third place, ‘Financial intermediation’ (banking), with an income equivalent to 3.14 baskets.
One of the areas that generates the most employment is Commerce, with income that in December represented the equivalent of 1.08 baskets, while Construction stood at 1.48.
At the bottom of the table, the Education items (teachers) appear in that measurement, with only 0.59 baskets purchasable with the average salary (around 359 thousand pesos, at December values); Real estate services, with 0.80 basic baskets and ‘Cultural, sports and leisure services’, with 0.96, approaching the value of the basket at that time, that is, in the order of 550 thousand pesos.
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Regarding the teaching sector, it must be remembered that the provincial government recently committed to a minimum salary floor of 500 thousand pesos for incoming teachers, which compared to the total basic basket of 917 thousand pesos, would represent just over half. For the sector average, it was reported that the recomposition has been 70% so far this year, so when comparing that percentage against the evolution of the basket (66.3%), The real recovery, in that 4-month period, would be just over 3 points.
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The Observatory report also refers to the teaching salaries of the CUP and the Faculty of Economic Sciences, in which it is observed that both fell sharply, from their maximums in January 2022, when they exceeded 2.2 and 1.5 basic baskets, respectively, up to below 1.3 and 1.2 baskets, for CUP and Faculty.
The work also reflects that until December, the evolution of the average salary was falling steadily. From an amount of 1.92 purchasable baskets in March 2019, to a maximum of 1.93 in March 2023, it fell to 1.67 last December.
FIRST QUARTER OF WAGE FALL
The Economics Observatory also carried out a comparison of the evolution of private salaries and the total basic basket in the first quarter of the year. In that comparison, income clearly loses again compared to prices.
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In this case, the measurement is made in comparison against the Basic Food Basket and it emerges that since December, when the average private asset in the city was enough to buy 2.7 food baskets, in March it fell to 2.5.
If the comparison is made against the highest point, in January 2023, when the salary was enough for just over 4 baskets, the fall represents one and a half baskets of loss, in the period of 15 months.
Faced with these data, the challenge for the salaried sector is to recover purchasing power in the face of inflation that, although it could be attenuated in May, since the next INDEC report will probably show a figure around 6%, has eroded much of the purchasing capacity of households, plunging more sectors into poverty. According to the Argentine Catholic University, this scourge already affects 55 out of every 100 inhabitants of the country.
