Families living in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) needed more than $118,000 in May to pay public service rates, according to a report from the Tariffs and Subsidies Observatory of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy (IIEP), which depends on the UBA and Conicet.
The report calculated that the basket of public services for an average AMBA home was $118,825without subsidies, during the fifth month of the year. This cost represents an increase of 15.6% compared to the expense of $102,779 in April.
The increase in the basket, which includes coverage of energy, transportation and drinking water needs, “is mainly explained by higher consumption of natural gas and electricity as the winter seasonal peak approaches,” the report stated. .
The cost of the total basket increased 295% compared to December 2023 due to the updates to transportation rates (January and February), electricity (February), water and natural gas (April).
What was the service that increased the most in the month?
The analysis specified that “the most important increase was for natural gas with an increase of 893% compared to December 2023 and is explained both by the increase in rates in April and by a more intensive use in the month of May compared to December “and contributed that “spending on transportation increased 410%, on water 209% and on electricity 124%.”
With these values, in May, the AMBA public services basket occupies the 14% of the average recorded salary for the month At the same time, the most important weight within the services is occupied by transportation spending.
The National Government froze the price of the gas rate
The data are known amid the Government’s decision to postpone the planned increases in gas and electricity rates, and to increase transport subsidies, to help consolidate the decline in inflation in recent weeks.
In this regard, the study revealed that “rate coverage, estimated as the weighted average of the costs of public services in the AMBA at the expense of the user, is 37% in the month of May.” This means that “the State takes charge of the remaining 63%.”
