A typical family needed $773,385 in March to not be poor (US 1 =$1,005.00)
The basic basket rose 11.9% in March, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), so a typical family needed $773,385 in March to not be poor. The further away from the capital you are, the higher the value. of the basic basket, for example in San Carlos de Bariloche Patagonia Argentina The cumulative figure shows a 270% increase in the food basket in San Carlos de Bariloche as of FEBRUARY 2024, while the year-on-year figure stands at 251%.
The cost of the Total Basic Basket (CBT) does not include the value of a rental home.
The official report highlights that the cost of the products that make up the Basic Food Basket in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires rose 10.9% in the third month of the year, which determined that this same family required income of $358,048.65 to avoid falling in destitution.
The total basic basket for an equivalent adult (adult male between 30 and 60 years old, of moderate activity, which is the unit of measurement) amounted to $250,286. The CBT rose 11.9% compared to February and the interannual variation rose to 304.4%. The accumulated variation in the first quarter of 2024 is 56%.
For its part, the basic food basket for an equivalent adult was $115,873.
In that case, the monthly increase was 10.9% and the interannual increase reached 308.2%. In the first quarter it accumulated an increase of 48.8%.
In the case of a household of three members, the total basic basket reached $615,705 and the basic food basket was $285,048.
For a family of five members, the CBT reached $813,431 and the CBA, $376,588.
At the end of March, INDEC published the latest poverty report: it reached 41.7% of people in the second half of 2023, marked by the end of Alberto Fernández’s government.
If the universe of the report, concentrated in 31 urban agglomerations, is extended to the entire country, it is equivalent to almost 19,500,000 poor people, of which 6.5 million are indigent.
Inflation in March was 11.9%, accumulating a year-on-year increase of almost 288%. There are those who say that “inflation” is slowing down but entering the supermarket to make purchases is almost a challenge for the brave.
So the entire population is on the hunt for news about a promotion, a sale, an offer or begging for discounts of any kind. In that context, the announcement that 1,500 items, including household essentials, will have frozen prices for a whopping 90 days, cannot go unnoticed.
Carrefour Argentina has just made precisely this announcement: it will keep the prices of 1,500 of its own products fixed until July 15, 2024, in the 22 provinces where it is present.
The company’s directors point out that the action is part of the sixth edition of its “Precios Corajudos” program and is carried out under the motto “Defending price and quality.”
“We are pioneers in this initiative and we are proud to be able to continue for the sixth time Precios Corajudos, which is a registered trademark of Carrefour. We are convinced that our own brand is the best price and quality alternative to accompany people in their daily purchases. Today more and more customers choose us,” said Néstor Sist, co-Executive Director of Carrefour in the country, in the company’s official statement.
The products that are part of this action belong to the categories of warehouse, drinks, bazaar items and cleaning and personal hygiene.
Courage or fear?
The truth is that, beyond the marketing strategy and commercial decisions made, all mass consumption companies and the entire commercial chain have already recorded the impact of the drop in their sales, as a result of the famous “blender.” which has caused the purchasing power of salaries and pensions to plummet.
Data from last January showed how consumption deepened its decline: year-on-year sales in supermarkets decreased 13.8%, while they fell 231.3% in purchasing centers and 8.1% in wholesale self-service stores. Analysts agree that the impact in the months that followed worsened the situation.
In this context, announcing freezes for three months can also be considered a strategy to bet on the recovery of sales in the coming months, when joint agreements begin to impact the homes of salaried people.
If the prices of the basic basket manage to remain stable, its participation in total household spending will be lower and it is reasonable to expect some recovery in purchases of items that today have decidedly joined the list of “luxuries.”
Surely, it is a “courageous” commercial bet, but it seems like a courage that emerged from the general alarm that the drop in consumption causes in the business sector.
That same report indicated that indigence (extreme poverty) rose from 8.1% to 11.9% (3.8 percentage points).
