LatinNews Daily - 28 September 2023

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released updated figures putting the country’s poverty rate at 40.1% in the first half of 2023. This was up from 39.2% in the second half of 2022. Extreme poverty also increased over the same period to affect 9.3% of the population, up from 8.1%. The figures are another blow to Economy Minister Sergio Massa, the presidential candidate for the ruling Peronist coalition Unión por la Patria (UP), and come amid galloping inflation (running at a monthly rate of 12.4% and an annual rate of 124.4% in August), interest rates of 118%, and a widening primary deficit caused in part by a historic drought that is affecting agricultural exports. In a bid to dissuade voters from abandoning UP in the 22 October first round of the election, on 26 September Massa announced handouts for informal workers, who are more likely to live in poverty, despite fears that this could further fuel the inflationary crisis which is driving up the poverty rate.