BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The Argentine government announced Tuesday a 35% increase and committed to two new quarterly adjustments to a social program that helps low-income families buy food.
The measure seeks to alleviate the impact of inflation –which accumulates more than 100% year-on-year— on the purchasing power of the most vulnerable sectors of the population with children or pregnant women without formal employment.
“We are not going to allow speculation regarding the food of Argentine families,” President Alberto Fernández said on his Twitter account, in a message that was addressed to sectors of the food industry that the government considers responsible for the escalation of prices.
The announced increase will be applied as of May on the Alimentar Program, a social aid that is granted to regarding 2.4 million low-income families for the purchase of food and non-alcoholic beverages. Within this universe, four million children are reached by this benefit.
Families with one child will receive the equivalent of $77, an amount that increases with the number of children. In total, the government will disburse the equivalent of 550 million dollars this year.
The announcement comes a few days following the March inflation measurement is known. Consultants project that it will be around 7%.
Argentina ranks fourth in a global inflation index for food, just behind Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Lebanon, according to the World Bank.
As an immediate consequence of this scourge, almost 40% of the Argentine population is poor, according to official figures for the second half of 2022, and of that percentage, 8.1% are indigent, that is, they cannot meet their income needs. food. In total, 18.6 million people have problems to survive in the South American country.
The announced increase will be applied as of May on the Alimentar Program, a social aid that is granted to regarding 2.4 million low-income families for the purchase of food and non-alcoholic beverages. Within this universe, four million children are reached by this benefit.
Families with one child will receive the equivalent of $77, an amount that increases with the number of children. In total, the government will disburse the equivalent of 550 million dollars this year.
