Published 09/27/2024 08:24 | Edited 09/27/2024 08:25
The shock therapy imposed by President Javier Milei on the Argentine economy has not only been harmful to the population of the country neighboring Brazil. For the first time since Milei took power, on December 10, 2023, the government’s disapproval rating reached 50%. In some surveys, there have been four consecutive months of a drop in the government’s assessment.
The results of the research come amid increasing poverty in Argentina and the end of subsidies for public service tariffs, especially electricity and gas.
According to data released at the beginning of September, estimates from the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University, ODSA-UCA, indicate that the poverty rate in the country was 52% in the first half of this year. Indigence reached 17.9% in the period.
Milei is applying the strongest fiscal adjustment ever experienced by Argentine society in 65 years, according to a recent study by the Mediterrânea Foundation.
The impact of this “shock therapy” is beginning to appear in public opinion polls, including those carried out by Di Tella University and the consultancy company Proyección. “We see in the focal interviews that Milei voters consider the adjustment excessive, and they also see that the cost of this policy is being paid mainly by those who have the least”, points out Santiago Giorgietta, director of Proyección.
In the monthly monitoring of Proyección, the Milei government obtained, for the first time, 50% disapproval. In the same survey, 50% of respondents said they believe that their family economy will worsen in the next six months, and 52% recognized that their families were forced to go into debt in the last month to cover household expenses.
The three main concerns of Argentines, the study shows, are inflation, low wages and tariffs and taxes.
The Argentine government’s score is below that achieved by former presidents Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and Alberto Fernández (2019-2023), after the first nine months of management.
Source: vermelho.org.br
