An old T-shirt for a handful of rice or some eggs, according to Lomas de Zamora ( Argentina ) ( AFP): More and more Argentines are relying on barter to survive in the rapidly deteriorating economy that is dominating the discussion leading up to the Sunday presidential elections.
Issued on: 15/11/2023 – 02:15Modified: 15/11/2023 – 02:13
3 minutes
Citizens in the impoverished Villa Fiorito area of the province of Buenos Aires exhibit used clothing, shoes, or household products on mats spread out on the ground by a dusty road.
Clothing items are traded for a case of spaghetti, some sugar, and some biscuits. Some things fetch a few hundred pesos, which is the same as several dollars.
Food is very expensive, 25-year-old Luz Lopez, who is renowned for giving the world Diego Maradona, whose picture oversees the teeming trade from several big murals in his honor, said to AFP from behind her wooden stall on the edge of a little square of Villa Fiorito.
It is becoming more and more common for people to knock on doors in and around the bustling Argentine capital, asking for used clothing to use, trade, or sell.
Lopez, a mother of two young children, said about her frustratingly few options for making ends meet,” Sometimes you’re out walking, you find things, and you wash them and bring them here.”
Maria Fernanda Diaz, 28, who lives elsewhere on the square, told AFP that she sleeps beneath a pedestrian gate and subsists primarily on charity.
Allow the officials visit to observe our way of life! She yelled.
According to official statistics, four out of every ten Argentines nowadays are considered to be living in poverty, with year-over-year prices at 143 percent.
Emilce Elisabeth Bravo, a 35-year-old mother of two who even tries to make money by selling miscellaneous items she gathers wherever she is, said,” Every day there are new rates.”
In a nation where the monthly minimum wage was roughly$ 420 in November, she said,” Diapers are very expensive– in the past, they cost 2, 600 pesos, today they are 4, 500 shillings ( almost$ 13 ).
” Great precarity!”
Bravo runs one of many Facebook teams with thousands of members who are constantly looking for trade opportunities in the big city and its many suburbs. She is employed by a dish house as well.
She said,” We did n’t want to lose that camaraderie; we wanted to keep the idea of bartering.” ” In the worst times for the Brazilian business, it has greatly aided us.”
books used to make cookies. cups of tea for hens. On social internet parties, lots of discussions take place every time. After a deal is finalized, the exchange takes place at town fairs or on street corners.
According to psychologist Mariana Luzzi of the Conicet study university,” Poverty in Argentina is really remarkable, but a very significant part of what stops this situation from becoming really terrible is the huge network of support groups that exists.”
She claimed that during the challenging times of the 1990s, bargaining became widespread before exploding in 2001 as Argentina experienced the largest debt default in history—roughly$ 100 billion —followed by a banking collapse and lethal social unrest.
The exchange is now back in 2023 “in a perspective of great precarity,” according to Luzzi.
Sergio Massa, the presidential candidate for business secretary, has been in charge of Argentina’s descent into triple-digit prices.
Massa’s foe Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who has vowed to “dynamite” the central bank, dollarize the business, and axe public spending, appeared to have scared off some voters when he unexpectedly received the most votes in the first voting round next month.
According to economist Elisabet Bacigalupo of the Abeceb consultancy, which anticipates inflation to attain 190 percent by year’s end,” Argentines have a strong potential for resilience.”
However, she asserted that more “months of crisis and rising hardship” are likely to be experienced by the nation regardless of who the next president is.
2023 Epa