After a strong reduction in subsidies and the March rate hike, One family needed more than $100,000 to cover utilities in it Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) in March. The rise during the government of Javier Milei (December-April) accumulates 241%as reported by the IIEP UBA-CONICET (Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy of Buenos Aires).
How much does a family spend monthly on public services?
In this way, the basket stood at $102,779 (+241% compared to December 2023) and compared to the previous month increased $27,350 (+36.3%).
This basket is made up of an average cost of $21,675 for electricity, $19,567 for gas, $20,631 for water and $19,567 for transportation. As the report explains, the strong increase is due to the “updates in transportation rates (January and February), electricity (February), water and natural gas (April),” the report highlights and clarifies that both gas consumption natural as those of electrical energy are “seasonally adjusted”.
Of all the services, the one that increased the most was natural gas with an advance of 561% compared to December 2023, while spending on Transportation increased 410%, water 209% and electricity 74%.
With these values, in April, AMBA’s basket of public services occupies 13% of the average recorded salary for the month At the same time, the most important weight within the services is occupied by transportation expense.
It should be noted that the price of transportation will continue to rise. For April a ticket increase of collectives and trainsalthough the Government decided to postpone the increases so that they do not impact inflation and they are still analyzing whether they will be updated again in May or it will be postponed again. Meanwhile, the cost of subway It must also be increased in the fifth month of the year, if the public hearing scheduled for April 25 is actually carried out.
weight of the basket of public services in the salary.PNG
What services have financial subsidies?
The Economic subsidies for Water, Energy and Transportation suffered a real drop of 59.5% in March compared to the previous year, explained by the growth of 52.3% p.a..
In the first quarter, it accumulated an execution of 23% with respect to the current credit for the selected items.
The Energy subsidieswhich represent the 61% of total subsidies, they were reduced by 67.4% real year on year in the first quarter after growing 23.6% nominal year on year. The transfers accrued from Energía Argentina SA (ENARSA) accumulated increased 39.9% nominal year-on-year (-62.9% real year-on-year). In turn, the transfers to CAMMESA increased nominally 11.5% a year while reduced 70.8% year-on-year. in real terms.
Meanwhile, the transfers through the Gas.Ar Plan (incentives for natural gas production) were reduced 35.8% YoY (-82.5% in real terms).
On the other hand, the Transport It explains 39% of the transfers and grew 151.7% a year in nominal terms, which is equivalent to a reduction of 32.7% a year in real terms. Within it, the most relevant item is the Transportation Infrastructure System Trust Fund (FFSIT) increased 211.6% pa in nominal terms, which is equivalent to a real fall of -17.6% pa in the first quarter of 2024.
Source: Ambito
