30% of families are below the poverty line and have an income of less than $2 millionAccording to the Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University. Moreover, they suggested itIf the basic basket is updated based on the 2017/2018 Household Consumption Survey, the total basic basket will be $1,942,000.Instead of $1,213,799.
The report from the department led by Agustín Salvia also talks about the effectiveness of coverage of programs such as the Universal Child Allowance (AUH). As they revealed, if income from AUH and other social programs were removed, they estimate that extreme poverty would be twice what it is now and poverty 15% higher. Thus, the rate of destitution is 12% and the rate of poverty is about 42%.
In their study of living conditions and the stabilization cycle, they emphasized that this period was largely supported by the contraction of consumption and the stagnation of private investment, which, with a lack of credit revitalization or confidence shock, would in the future lack the engines of productive, job-creating enterprises.
In this sense, they find limits to inclusion mechanisms that “threaten to deepen informality and structural poverty” if there is no support for formal employment generation.
In this sense, they created a social pyramid according to the family’s monthly income. There they discovered that 10% of families are considered very poor, with incomes of less than $800,000, and 20% of them have low, non-destitute incomes and receive between $800,000 and $2 million. The income of the vulnerable middle class, 20% of households, ranges between $2 million and $3.5 million, while the income of the aspirational middle class (also 20% of households) ranges between $3.5 million and $5 million.
The combined middle class (20%) receives up to $15 million, and the upper middle class (7%) up to $30 million. The top tier (3%) have incomes starting at $30 million and above.
poverty
The report acknowledges that there has been a statistical rebound in poverty rates “on a weak methodological basis and without corresponding improvements in consumption, well-being, or human capital.”
They added that structural poverty, the informal sector and job insecurity remain at historically high levels, with 30% of the population suffering from chronic conditions of vulnerability. They do not see the current economic system and its likely sectors, such as agriculture and mining, as factors that would help exit the informal sector, but rather would deepen subsistence self-employment and dependence on state aid.
Estimates based on data from the National Index for Measuring Poverty Rates indicate that the poverty rate in the second quarter of 2025 reached 31.8%, a decrease of 9.5 points compared to the second quarter of 2023.
However, the Observatory points out that INDEC surveys rely on income declaration, the accuracy of which has recently been improved, allowing the permanent survey of households to have 17% higher income today than in 2023.
If this measure were adjusted for the rest of the series, the poverty reduction would have been 2.1 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2023, when it would have been 33.9%.
Although the measurement shows that there is a real decline in monetary poverty, “the decline in official figures for the period prior to the adjustment will be overestimated by the measurement, such that it is possible that about ¾ of the decline from 2023 levels is due to a statistical effect.”
Another added factor is updating the basket through which, for example, the price index is measured. According to Salvia, the total base basket will be $1,942,000, rather than $1,213,799 if its composition is updated, because it will better reflect the impact of the increase in the cost of services in the second half of 2024, but will also represent a smaller increase in depreciation in December 2023 and a slower decline in subsequent quarters.
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