Sharp drop in Argentina’s poverty rate delivers boost for Milei

Argentina’s poverty rate fell sharply to 28.2 percent in the second half of last year – a fall of more than 10 points from a year previous, according to official data.

New data published by the INDEC national statistics bureau on Tuesday showed that extreme poverty affected 6.3 percent of the population – equivalent to some 1.9 million people, said INDEC.

Compared with data from the first half of 2025, the incidence of poverty declined for both households and individuals by 3.1 and 3.4 percentage points respectively. Extreme poverty dropped 0.6 points.

Around 2.1 million households, or 21 percent, are now considered below the poverty line, the bureau said, with 4.8 percent of homes classified as living in extreme poverty.

The news is a welcome and timely boost for President Javier Milei’s government, which has been suffering a drop in popularity in the polls following a string of negative headlines.

Controversies surrounding Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni, alongside tensions with provincial governors, labour unions and opposition lawmakers, have complicated the government’s reform agenda. 

Milei’s government welcomed the news and attributed the fall in these rates to the success of its economic programme, which reduced inflation from 117.8 percent at the end of 2024 to 31.5 percent by the end of 2025.

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has slashed government spending and dismissed thousands of public officials as part of his “chainsaw” austerity approach to governance.

In the first half of 2024, 52.9 percent of the population was living in poverty, according to INDEC data. Extreme poverty, by comparison, stood at 18.1 percent.

Poverty fell sharply in the second half of that year as Milei sharply tamed inflation, dropping nearly 14 percentage points to 38.1 percent – three points lower than the same period in 2023.

The trend continued into the first half of 2025, with poverty falling to 31.6 percent – the lowest level since the 31.5 percent recorded in the second half of 2018. Extreme poverty stood at 6.9 percent.

“TMAP,” wrote Milei succinctly in a post on social media – a reference to a slogan meaning “everything is going according to plan.”

“Poverty keeps falling. Fact, not narrative,” he added in a subsequent post.

Economy Minister Luis Caputo also cheered the news, declaring: “Poverty is at its lowest level in over seven years.”

Caputo also noted that Argentina’s economy grew 4.4 percent last year, though the sectors driving the improvement were those generating the fewest jobs, such as agriculture, finance, mining. Other sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and construction, remain sluggish.

Between November 2023 – one month before Milei took office – and November 2025, 22,000 companies have closed, while unemployment is at its highest level in six years, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Daniel Schteingart, a sociologist specialising in development and poverty, said that “a drop in the [poverty] index is always good news,” but he warned that the decline likely stalled “in the fourth quarter and at the start of 2026, due to inflation that has been gradually accelerating” and a basic basket of goods that continues to rise.

On the streets of Buenos Aires, Federico Bardauil, a 37-year-old restaurant worker, said that inflation “was more stable but now it’s much more out of control than last year.” He is doubtful about the fall in poverty.

“I don’t know anything about statistics, but walking down the street you can tell – you look to the side, at the ground, to the left, to the right, and you’ll always find someone sleeping on the street, on the train, people begging,” he said, looking around.

INDEC uses a purely monetary measure to calculate poverty. Its experts noted that, year-on-year, total household income increased by 18.3 percent, outpacing rises in the bureau’s cost-of-living benchmarks.

The data indicates that poverty continues to disproportionately affect younger age groups. In the second half of last year, 41.3 percent of individuals aged 0 to 14 lived in households below the poverty line, compared to 32.6 percent for those aged 15 to 29. Among those aged 65 and over, 9.7 percent were considered poor.

At the regional level, poverty among individuals stood at 28.3 percent in Greater Buenos Aires, 32.3 percent in Cuyo, 32.7 percent in the Northeast, 28.4 percent in the Northwest, 26.2 percent in the Pampas, and 25.4 percent in Patagonia. Extreme poverty was highest in Greater Buenos Aires (7 percent) and the Northeast (7.5 percent).

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL/AFP