Argentina’s poverty rate surged to 32.3 percent in the first half of 2026, largely erasing the progress achieved under President Javier Milei as household incomes failed to keep pace with escalating prices, according to official data released on Thursday.
The national statistics agency, Indec, reported that the rate increased by 4.1 points compared to the second half of 2025.
Extreme poverty also saw a significant increase, rising from 6.3 percent to 7.5 percent.
Young children bore the brunt of the crisis, with 44.5 percent of Argentines aged 14 and younger classified as impoverished, and 10.8 percent falling into extreme poverty.
Indec defines poverty as adults unable to afford a basic basket of goods and services valued at approximately $340.
Extreme poverty is defined as the inability to afford a basic food-only basket costing around $150.
These figures represent a significant setback for Milei, a free-market radical who had nearly halved the poverty rate during the first two years of his presidency, primarily by curbing chronic inflation.
Since assuming office on a platform to revitalize the stagnant economy through drastic austerity and deregulation, the poverty rate has experienced severe fluctuations.
The rate had previously dropped from a peak of 52.9 percent in the first half of 2024—following a devaluation of the peso exceeding 50 percent—to 28.2 percent in the second half of 2025.
This year’s rise coincided with a brief inflation rebound early in the year, though inflation later declined to 1.7 percent in August, the lowest level in 14 months.
Eduardo Donza, a researcher at the Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), attributed the high poverty rates in South America’s second-largest economy to pervasive job insecurity.
The manufacturing and retail sectors have suffered massive job losses due to declining purchasing power and Milei’s decision to open Argentina to foreign competition, which triggered a surge in imports.
Approximately 30,000 companies have closed since he assumed office, and unemployment climbed to 7.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, marking the highest level since 2021.
Economists argue that poverty is being driven more by the high rate of informal employment than by unemployment itself.
“The primary issue is job insecurity, not unemployment,” Donza stated. “When families are deprived, they are forced to create their own livelihoods, whether by collecting waste, street vending, or selling food at train stations.”
Milei maintains that he has lifted 14 million people out of poverty, an estimate derived from the decline in poverty rates from the peak observed after he assumed the presidency.