BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Buenos Aires shop owner Sergio Gomez spends his days behind a counter as empty as the large refrigerator he used to freeze meat. A blackboard above his head shows old prices for various cuts that are no longer for sale.
He can no longer run the small grocery store he and his wife opened eight months ago. Sales plummeted at the start of the year as sharp increases in food prices forced thousands of Argentines to adjust their spending habits.
“At first we decided to close part of the store and sell only meat and vegetables, but due to rising inflation and fewer customers, we had no choice but to close the butcher shop as well,” said the 51-year-old. the butcher said. Must be completely shut down. I can't go on any longer. we don't have the resources. ”
The Gomes are among a large group of Argentines who say their economic situation is worse than a year ago as a result of a series of austerity and deregulation measures ordered by President Javier Millay in his first 100 days in office. There is only one person.
Millay, a far-right economist, said the move was necessary to help Argentina avoid hyperinflation caused by the populist policies of her centre-left predecessor Alberto Fernández.
The burden of this legacy partly explains the unprecedented generosity expressed by many Argentines, whose support for the president remains strong despite worsening living conditions in the short term.
“How can you blame Millay?” asked Gomez's wife, Carla Cavallini. “I voted for him and I feel safe because he has done everything he said he would do. I knew this was going to happen,” she said of the dire economy they are experiencing. talked about the situation.
In a February survey by local opinion polling firm D'Alessio Irol/Berenstein, 81% of 1,018 respondents nationwide said the current economic situation is worse than a year ago. Still, Milley maintains a 43% approval rating, and according to the same poll, her support among voters rose to 75% in the November runoff.
Millais, a self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, took office in December and almost immediately announced a series of shock policies, including a 50% devaluation of the country's currency, in the hope of ultimately curbing rampant inflation. did.
The administration also cut funding to localities, eliminated some state subsidies for transportation and energy, and abolished price control policies that its predecessor had used as a means to curb inflation.
However, Millais's measures led to price increases, especially for food and medicine. The monthly inflation rate in December reached 25.5%, the highest level in 30 years. Poverty soared to more than 50% in January, and consumption fell to levels comparable to 2001, when the outbreak brought an early end to the government at the time.
“I am very aware of what is happening in Argentina,” Millay said in a recent interview. “Especially when it comes to the deviations of the last 20 years, it means that rectifying a 100-year disaster will not be free,” he said, referring to policies implemented by Argentina's centre-left government.
“Half of the population believes that things will work out in the long run. We have never seen anything like this in previous crises,” says the author, who has measured the social mood of Argentines every month for a quarter of a century. said consultant Fernando Moiger.
Overall, he says, Argentines feel that what was done before has failed. “What they want (now) is for someone to come and tear everything down so we can be like the countries around us that don't have as many problems as we do.”
A March survey by Moiger found that 56% of 1,300 respondents believed Millais' adjustment and deregulation measures were “appropriate” to improve the country's economic situation.
Millais insists his measures are bearing fruit.
Inflation slowed to 13.2% in February from 20.6% in January. The U.S. dollar, long a focus in Argentina, has stabilized while the budget deficit has declined, a move welcomed by investors and the International Monetary Fund, which Argentina secured with a $45 billion loan it signed in 2018. That's what happened.
But low-income Argentines must take drastic measures on their own to survive.
Anbar Imoverdov, a 72-year-old retiree, started singing boleros and tangos in one of Buenos Aires' busiest corners. Her pension of about $140 a month is not enough for her to buy food and medicine and pay taxes and utilities. service.
“The last few months have been horrible,” she said during a break before turning on the speaker and grabbing the microphone. “I'm not thinking about myself, but about my grandparents, some of whom can't walk or do anything. I can walk and I can sing.”
Mr. Imoverdov, who is widowed and has no children, says he can earn up to $200 for an overnight weekend thanks to his impromptu recitals. “God has given me a spirit that doesn't give in. Death will find me standing and singing,” she said.
Unlike her girlfriends, 34-year-old Johanna Torres wishes the weekend would end quickly. She doesn't measure time by hours, but she and the four children she cares for skip meals. From Monday to Friday, she said, they eat at least once a day at a community kitchen in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires.
“Saturdays and Sundays last forever because there is no bread to eat,” Torres said. He is unemployed and receives social assistance worth $200 a month. Most of his money will go toward caring for his 2-year-old daughter, Luhan, who is suffering from a respiratory illness after contracting COVID-19 a few weeks after her birth.
“I'm coming to the soup kitchen because I don't have anything to eat. When this place closes down, I'm going to go out and steal.”
Analysts agree that Mr. Millay still has a significant core of support among Argentines, but many wonder how long that will last.
“The more society decides that it wants and needs to change, the more the limits will expand,” Moigale said. “Of course, there are limits to everything. … What this society needs is some kind of validator who buys time along the way.”
He uses the metaphor of a child going from a 107-degree fever to 99 degrees.
“The reduction of the fever is the first sign that the doctor's treatment was appropriate,” Moyger said.
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