The rise in hunger and poverty creates a complex backdrop for the leaders of Argentine, Latin America's no. 3 economy, who are in talks with creditors to avoid default on billions of dollars of debt amid economic and political upheaval.
Officials will head to Washington this month to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a major backer that struck a $57 billion funding deal with the country last year, as the government has been locked in talks with creditors about repayments on around $100 billion in debts.
Moody's Investors Service anticipates holders of Argentina dollar bonds will need to write off 10% to 20% of their investments, while Fitch Ratings believes the government will write down local and dollar debt.
Officials will head to Washington this month to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a major backer that struck a $57 billion funding deal with the country last year, as the government has been locked in talks with creditors about repayments on around $100 billion in debts.
Moody's Investors Service anticipates holders of Argentina dollar bonds will need to write off 10% to 20% of their investments, while Fitch Ratings believes the government will write down local and dollar debt.
On the outskirts of capital Buenos Aires, Elena Escobar works atthe local Caritas Felices soup kitchen to serve food to street children who scrape by from meal to meal. Escobar says the volunteer-run kitchen has seen a surge of kids and families seeking help over the last few months, amid a biting recession and fast-rising prices that have pushed millions of people into poverty.
"There are many children in need, many malnourished, with kids that get to dinner time and don't have any food," said Escobar. The kitchen receives over 100 children each week, up from around 20-30 when it opened its doors in April. The Claypole kitchen is far from alone in witnessing rising hardship, with government data showing poverty rates jumped to 35% in the first half of 2019 amid recession and steep inflation, from 27.3% a year earlier. Around 13% of children and adolescents went hungry in 2018, according to data from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, and rising food prices have become a regular target of popular anger in street protests around the country.
Hunger and poverty are not new in Argentina, but have risen abruptly over the past two years amid a series of economic shocks that have rattled the grain-exporting nation, famed for its rich arable land and cattle.
Driving the problem is stubborn inflation, a tumbling peso and a slump in domestic production and consumption, which have hurt spending power, incomes and jobs.
"There is just no work," said 46-year-old Isabel Britez, a volunteer at the Los Piletones dining room in Buenos Aires, who said that was the main message she heard from people eating at the kitchen, which serves around 2,000 meals a day.
Sergio Chouza, an economist at the University of Avellaneda in Buenos Aires, said food prices have rocketed nearly 60% over the past year, with basics such as dairy up as much as 90%.
"That results in a deterioration of diets and pushes many people below the poverty line."
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