Overview
- INDEC released second-half 2025 data this week showing 28.2% poverty and 6.3% indigence, and the Milei administration claimed credit for the drop.
- Researchers at UCA’s Social Debt Observatory argue about half of the decline is a statistical effect tied to using a 2004 consumption basket and to the paused update of the CPI basket.
- The observatory’s director said indigence fell for concrete reasons, including a food basket that rose slower than overall prices and private-sector wages that beat that food cost.
- Economists warn the gains look fragile because recent wage increases trail inflation and faster-rising food prices, with higher utility and transport bills squeezing family budgets.
- The national average masks sharp gaps, with poverty near 50% in Concordia, more than 40% in Gran Resistencia, and about 10% in Buenos Aires city.