The Argentines are experienced in crises. Constantly rising prices force people to lead a frugal lifestyle. There is no other way. How they survive the cold South American winter despite hyperinflation and gas shortages.
A man searches for recyclables in a garbage container in Buenos Aires
It's cold on Avenida Jose Antonio Cabrera in Buenos Aires. Especially in the mornings and evenings, when the sun's rays do not yet offer any protection from winter temperatures, the thermometer can sometimes show temperatures close to freezing point or below. Nevertheless, the small shops with fruit and vegetables are still or already open.
There is no heating here, the door is open all the time. Shop owner Martin Gonzales wears a thick sweater, a winter jacket and a woolen hat: “That has to be enough. It's no use heating the shop. If we close the gate, the customers won't see our goods anymore. And we also make a living from that walk-in customers,” says Gonzales. “Heating with gas would be far too expensive anyway.”
Grocery store in Buenos Aires
At the gates of the Argentine metropolis, the people in the slums are fighting their own battle with the high energy prices. In the last few days alone, more than half a million applicants have registered to continue receiving support from government electricity and gas subsidies. It is intended to protect people from the lowest income brackets from suddenly being without electricity and gas because they can no longer pay the bill. In total, more than 1.47 million households had already been entered in the state list by the middle of the week.< /p>
Dramatic depreciation of the peso
The crisis in Argentina is ongoing and dramatic. The Argentine peso has depreciated significantly against the dollar in just the past few weeks. A good ten days ago there was 25,000 Argentine pesos for 100 US dollars in the exchange offices, now it is almost 34,000 pesos. A drop in value of almost 33 percent with the so-called Dollar Blue, whose course determines economic life decisively and which has a direct influence on everyday prices.
Food, fuel, transport – actually everything is becoming more and more expensive. Price tags are updated weekly – sometimes daily. The Argentine government around President Alberto Fernandez is trying to take countermeasures. A few days ago there was a change at the top of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Martin Guzman was followed by Silvina Aída Batakis. She's been busy trying to calm the markets somehow since day one. So far without success.
Silvina Batakis, Argentina's new economy minister
It's all about the dollar and somehow getting hold of that currency. Saving Argentine pesos makes almost no sense as inflation wipes out the value of the savings. That's why people try to get dollars to create such a cushion. This sometimes leads to bizarre scenes. Dozens of people are currently looking for dollars suspected there at a Las Parejas garbage dump in Santa Fe. After landfill workers first found around $50,000 in a discarded piece of furniture, neighbors gathered on the site to also look for more bills. Even at night people continue to search with flashlights.
The social activist Juan Grabois
” Argentina has been robbed”
A debate has long erupted in the country about who is to blame for the misery. “Argentina has been robbed,” the increasingly popular social activist Juan Grabois told DW. The billions in credit from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the previous government of Mauricio Macri took out are to blame. This loan is the reason for the country's high debt.
Rebeca Fleitas, MP for the free-market party La Libertad Avanza in Buenos Aires around the economist Javier Milei, who is increasingly moving into the limelight, disagrees. In an interview with DW, he sees the flaw in the current Argentine business model that keeps throwing the country back: “Our economic system is sick. The private sector is far too weak, we produce far too little. We have a state apparatus that is far too bloated for that. “
MP Rebeca Fleitas
The debate on who is to blame for the current Argentine However, the crash does not help the local people for the time being. According to the latest figures, 37.2 percent of the population in Argentina live below the poverty line, which corresponds to the enormous number of 17.4 million people. For them, the current inflation trend is a humanitarian catastrophe, because the already few pesos are becoming less and less valuable.
No matter how hard they work, it is no longer enough to survive. In Argentina you can observe what happens when a society collapses economically: The consequences are also growing crime and insecurity on the streets. The struggle for survival is getting harder and harder, the rift in society is getting deeper.