What are the modifications that are coming?

The intention of the organism that leads Marco Lavagna is to modernize the methodologies, since some have been used for more than two decades, as was the case of consumer price index (CPI) which is currently based on the National Survey of Household Expenses (ENGHo) 2003-2004. He debut of the new CPI It will be finalized in the month of February with the January inflation measurement.

Poverty

The methodological change in measuring the poverty will occur after updating the Basic Food Basket (CBA)which contains food and beverages, and is used to calculate the indigence line; while the Total Basic Basket (CBT) also add estate and non-food services such as clothing, transportation, education, health, housing, etc., and is used to measure the poverty line.

The current methodology has been in force since 2016, after the intervention, and uses a basic food basket for each region constructed from joint data from the ENGHo 1996-1997 and that of 2004-2005. It should be noted that, the ENGHo 2017-2018 It is now available so the baskets can be updated.

The CBA is currently designed to cover a minimum of 1,750 kilocalories daily per personalthough international standards require a current average of 1,600 kilocalories.

“Generally when the methodology is updated the amount of calories changes, beyond international standards, we must also see how much people consumed based on the ENGHo 2017-2018”explained an official source regarding the changes being worked on in the baskets.

It is estimated that the “Engels methodology”, which includes the relationship between food expenses and the total expenses observed in the reference population.

Regarding the total basket, they stated that the services and all non-food expenses will be taken from the consumption of the ENGHo 2017-2018. In this way, they explain that it will have a different weight, but they clarify that they will not be like those of the CPI, since it does not have weights.

“There may be changes to the packages. Among the topics that are commonly discussed among specialists is “If the tenants’ expense will be added, but so far there are no certainties, they are debating it.”they highlighted.

In September, the basic food basket for a typical family of four rose 1.4%, below inflation, and stood at $527,736, while the total reached $1,176,852. However, these values ​​do not take into account the cost of housing, but rather assume that families have property.

The rental of a two-room apartment in CABA, for a typical family, had a cost of $792 in Septemberaccording to the latest survey of Zonaprop. Converted to pesos, taking into account the price of the dollar at Banco Nación (it closed at $1,475), it would be around $1,168,200. That is, if the cost of rental is taken into account, the basket would become almost double in price, at least for CABA.

It is worth remembering that rental prices increased between 56.8% and the 100.09% between January and September in the different regions, the one that advanced the least Great Good Aires and the one that increased the most Patagonia, according to the INDEC CPI measurement.

EPH and salaries

In turn, INDEC foresees a structural modification in the Permanent Household Surveywhich is used to measure employment, income and living conditions. Currently, it is carried out in 31 urban agglomerations on a quarterly basis, but the third quarter has been extended, since 2010, to the “total urban area”, which includes coverage of all localities with 2,000 or more inhabitants.

The intention is for this survey to be carried out more frequently, since it gives a more complete view of what happened.

In addition, other modifications are being analyzed in the wage indexwhich measures the assets of public, private and informal employees; to improve the tool, since the collection of data on the salaries of informal workers has a delay of five months.