RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian magazine Veja published an analysis of the current political situation in Argentina and compared it to what it defines as “Venezuela’s disaster”. The publication talks about the crisis between President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner and the extent of this estrangement.
“During the months of stagnation and unpopular measures, Alberto Fernández, the bureaucrat that Peronism installed in the Casa Rosada, broke with his creator and deputy, Cristina Kirchner. Result: a chain of negative results,” the article begins.
“In March, the inflation rate was 6.7%, the second-highest in the world, behind Russia at war (7.6%). In April, the interest rates made Argentines cry: the Central Bank raised them for the fourth time, and the annual rate reached 47%, a planetary record,” it explains about Argentina’s inflation.
Likewise, they add information on the annual percentage that inflation may reach. “The outlook is gloomy. Annual inflation reached 55.1%, and the market calculates that, at the end of this 16th consecutive year of double-digit rates, it will shoot up to 65%, the highest rate since 1991, from the supermarket, pharmacy, and bakery, where a lot of flexibility is needed to evade constant increases.
And more from the school and health plan, from where three or four times a year withering -and unavoidable- increases come out. In the first quarter alone, spending on education increased by 27.9%,” they detailed.
On the other hand, Idesa also adds data on the middle class in Argentina. “The Institute of Social Development of Argentina (Idesa) calculates that, of the 46 million Argentines, 40% belong to the middle class, but only half of that participation is in the so-called “accommodating middle class”, with salaries above the equivalent.
The rest accumulates in the “fragile middle class”, which depends on the sum of the income of several family members, and if one loses his job, the whole group can fall into poverty.”
Finally, the magazine makes the comparison that gives the article its title, that Argentina resembles Venezuela. “Immersed in its dramatic political-financial tango, the country is close to taking the place of the worst-performing Venezuela in Latin America. In Argentina, the government of Fernandez skates in a vicious circle: in open conflict with Kirchner, who steps on the popular key of resistance to the squeeze, and weakened by the defeat at the ballot box in last year’s legislative elections, the Casa Rosada turned on the tap of public spending, with increases in subsidies and social plans, which deepened the imbalances”.
With information from Cronista