The New Humanitarian interviewed Valeria Piñeiro, IFPRI’s acting head for Latin America, for the article about the worsening situation with hunger and poverty in Argentina.
Piñeiro is asking the international community not to neglect Argentina and Latin America. In the decade up to 2015, the region was hailed for outperforming others in reducing hunger and poverty, but it saw a 30 percent jump in the number of hungry people between 2019 and 2021. “It’s hard to get funding or support from donors for the region because most people have the perception it only has middle-income countries and think they’re doing fine,” Piñeiro told The New Humanitarian. “But [it] includes a number of poor countries like Haiti or Guatemala, and the region is not doing fine. They’ve been really affected by all the three Cs – conflict, COVID-19, and climate change.”
Piñeiro called what is happening “a vicious cycle”. The government has set price controls to keep a lid on food costs, but inflation continues to rise because it is also printing money to cover its chronic fiscal deficit.
“Inflation is going up, but because you have a big informal sector their wages are not catching up. That’s why an increasing number of people are not able to afford food,” said Piñeiro, who is also concerned about longer-term impacts on nutrition as people turn to lower-quality diets.
“The keyword to explain [Argentina’s] economic problems is distortions,” Piñeiro added.