The sharp jump in the exchange rate in December caused a significant acceleration in inflation, which pulverized the income of workers, who only partially recovered.
The salaries of formal workers have already collapsed 14.9% since November 2023prior to the devaluation that the Government of Javier Milei validated as soon as he took office, according to data from the Research and Training Center of the Argentine Republic (FIGURE).
The sharp jump in the exchange rate caused a significant acceleration in inflation, which pulverized workers’ income in December and January; in effect, the real fall in wages It reached 21.3% in the first month of the yearand reached 23.8% if purchasing power is measured in food.
After that “shock,” the CIFRA report said, The deep recession acted as a brake on price increases.. “In this framework, some joint negotiations were able to recover part of what they had lost, which is shown on the average as a minimal relative rebound,” he explained.
The loss of purchasing power in the public sector was greater than that observed in the private sector (-21.3% vs -11.2%). In addition, The minimum, vital and mobile wage suffered an even greater dropreaching an alarming 28.8% between November 2023 and May of the current year.
Compared to November 2019, the real income of formal workers fell by 24.2% (and 32% measured in food); those in the public sector contracted almost 30% while those in the private sector contracted by 20.9%.
Source: Ambito
