The consultant Focus Market prepared a following report in which it reviewed, based on the successful Big Brother program, how the economy was when the participants entered in December 2023 and how it is now in May 2024.
Big Brother is a reality show produced by the Argentine franchise Banijay, based on the successful Dutch program Big Brother, created by John de Mol. Since its first broadcast on March 10, 2001, it had ten regular seasons and one edition with celebrities. It was originally broadcast on Telefe until 2012, then moved to América TV between 2015 and 2016, finally returning to its original channel, Telefe, in 2022. In the program, the participants, during the duration of the program (minimum four months), try avoid being nominated by their peers and overcome periodic eliminations decided by the public, with the aim of winning the final prize.
Let’s imagine being out of date on the future of the Argentine economy for months. What do each of the members of the Big Brother house encounter when they leave it? What economic and financial variables did they know before entering the house and what do they have to face when leaving?
“The daily task for Argentines is to recognize and accept the discrepancies in our economy, but when you see an axis of separation of time, what happens to an Argentine who lives abroad and after a long time visits our country or someone who leaves the famous TV house the impact can be abrupt. “The course of a semester in the Argentine economy can be compared to an entire life in another country due to persistent inflationary processes, macroeconomic instability and exchange rate volatility, among other factors,” said Damián Di Pace Director of the Focus Market Consulting Firm.
We take the hypothetical situation that the participants will encounter upon returning to their normal lives, associating their trades or professions with different variables of our economy. Lisandro Navarro, financial advisor; Catalina Gorostidi new mother; and Sabrina Cortez, model and accountant.
Lisandro, with his profession as a financial advisor, is familiar with financial variables, such as the different exchange rates that affect Argentina on a daily basis. He may be surprised to discover that he entered the house with an Official Dollar of $379 and in May 2024 the official value reached $897, representing an increase of 137%. However, perhaps the surprise is greater to note that the Blue Dollar only increased 7%, going from $975.00 to $1,040; while the Merval index increased by 61% and the Country Risk decreased by 35%.
Fountain: Focus Market
Another of the participants, the cook Catalina, when leaving the house, will be surprised that all the products, selected for this analysis, that she uses for cooking or in her daily life increased in some cases more than 50%.
image.png
Fountain: Focus Market through INDEC.
Finally, Sabrina Cortez, the accountant, likes to keep the inflation values of the monotax categories updated since its inception in January 1998. She observes that the highest limit of gross income from “Services” was $120,000 when the monotax began , adjusted for inflation, should be $118,744,534, while the latest “Sale of Personal Property” scale started with $144,000 and in April it should be $142,493,441.28. However, the Monotax scales and ceilings to advance the fiscal package will be updated to $68 million.
image.png
Fountain: Focus Market
After 4 months, Catalina is interested in knowing what her current salary will be when she returns to the kitchen. Knowing that she earns a living and mobile salary, she would earn $202,800 in March, seeing that her increase is 30%. Lisandro, advisor to an elementary school teacher without seniority, discovers that in April she earned $420,000, an increase of 28.5% compared to December of the previous year. For her part, adjusted for year-on-year inflation, the minimum living and mobile wage should be $327,822.
Sabrina keeps the accounts for a nurse, who had a 32.5% increase in his salary, while a Federal Police Agent had a 16% increase. Something in common that these 3 eliminated participants have is that their respective parents are retired and earn the minimum, including the bonus from the government, in April 2024 they collected $214,217.00; 128.2% more compared to December 2023. In May it would go to $260,141 with a $70,000 bonus included.
image.png
Fountain: Focus Market
In January of this year, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) gave the green light to the issuance of banknotes larger than $10,000 and $20,000. Obviously the entrants of the house do not know of their existence until they are eliminated and return to their daily lives, but the winner, assuming that the program lasts until the end of the year (as long as the rating supports) the winner will meet these new tickets. However, the real value will not be the one reflected next to the faces of Manuel Belgrano and María Remedios del Valle ($10,000 bill) and Juan Bautista Alberdi ($20,000 bill). With the estimate of interannual inflation for December 2024, both bills in real terms would be worth $5,279.83 and $10,559.66, respectively.
image.png
Fountain: Focus Market
Lisandro, with his financial knowledge, has closely observed market fluctuations, Catalina, on the other hand, has faced the reality of a significant increase in the cost of living. Meanwhile, Sabrina has kept a detailed record of the changes in the monotax scales, reflecting the constant inflationary pressure on taxpayers’ income and expenses.
“The experience of the Big Brother participants in the Argentine economic context offers a unique perspective on the challenges and changes that the country is going through. From exchange rate volatility to the impact of inflation on the prices of everyday products, each participant has witnessed economic dynamics in their daily lives. These participants, each from their own perspective, offer a revealing look at the complexity of the Argentine economy and how it affects the daily lives of its citizens,” indicated Damián Di Pace Director of the Focus Market Consulting Firm.
Source: Ambito
